GIFT  OF 
SEELEY  W.  MUDD 

and 

GEORGE  I.  COCHRAN     MEYER  ELSASSER 
DR.  JOHN  R.  HAYNES    WILLIAM  L.  HONNOLD 
JAMES  R.  MARTIN         MRS.  JOSEPH  F.  SARTORI 

to  tin 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SOUTHERN  BRANCH 


JOHN  FISKE 


JOURNEYS  AND  EXPLOEATIONS 


THE  COTTON  KINGDOM  OF  AMERICA. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 
MR.  OLMSTED'S  WORKS  ON  THE  SLAVE  STATES, 

SEABOARD  SLAVE  STATES.  A  Journey  in  the  Seaboard 
Slave  States,  with  Remarks  on  their  Economy.  1  vol., 
12mo.  pp.  724.  Price,  $1.25. 

TEXAS  JOTTKNEY.  A  Journey  through  Texas :  or,  a  Saddle 
Trip  on  the  Southwestern  Frontier ;  with  a  Statistical 
Appendix.  1  vol.,  12mo.  pp.  516.  Price,  $1.25. 

JOUBNEY  IN  THE  BACK  COUNTRY.  A  Journey  in  the 
Back  Country;  with  a  complete  Index  to  the  three 
volumes.  1  vol.,  12mo.  pp.  492.  Price,  $1.25. 

THE  COTTON  KINGDOM.  A  Traveller's  observations  on 
Cotton  and  Slavery  in  the  American  Slave  States. 
Based  upon  three  former  volumes  of  Journeys  and 
Investigations  by  the  same  author.  2  vols.,  12mo.  pp. 
384  and  408.  With  a  Colored  Statistical  Map  of  the 
Cotton  Kingdom  and  its  Dependencies,  mainly  derived 
from  the  United  States  Census.  Price,  $2.00. 

This  work  was,  by  request,  prepared  by  its  author  with  especial  ref- 
erence to  English  readers,  and  is  simultaneously  published  in  England 
and  in  this  country. 


0-5/c. 

v.  I 

DEDICATION. 


TO 

• 

JOHN  STUAET  MILL,  ESQ. 

8m,  ^ 

I  BEG  you  to  accept  the  dedication  of  this 

book  as  an  indication  of  the  honour  in  which  your  services 
in  the  cause  of  moral  and  political  freedom  are  held  in 
America,  and  as  a  grateful  acknowledgment  of  personal 
obligations  to  them  on  the  part  of 

Your  obedient  servant, 
THE  AUTHOR. 


I  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  L 

HMi 
INTRODUCTORY. THE    PRESENT    CRISIS  -   .  •  .1 

CHAPTER  II. 

WASHINGTON    .  28 

CHAPTER  EL 

VIRGINIA  .  . 38 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    ECONOMY    OF   VIRGINIA 108 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE    CAROLINA8          ..         .  ..  .  .  .  .141 

ER   VI. 

224 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

PAGE 

ALABAMA   .  .  .  ...  .  .  .  272 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

TEE    LOWER    MISSISSIPPI 285 

CHAPTER  IX. 

COTTON   PLANTERS. RED    RIVEK  .  .  .    342 


COTTON  AND  SLAVERY. 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTORY. — THE   PRESENT   CRISIS. 

THE  mountain  ranges,  the  valleys,  and  the  great  waters  of 
America,  all  trend  north  and  south,  not  east  and  west.  An 
arbitrary  political  line  may  divide  the  north  part  from  the 
south  part,  but  there  is  no  such  line  in  nature :  there  can 
be  none,  socially.  While  water  runs  downhill,  the  currents 
and  counter  currents  of  trade,  of  love,  of  consanguinity,  and 
fellowship,  will  flow  north  and  south.  The  unavoidable 
comminglings  of  the  people  in  a  land  like  this,  upon  the  con- 
ditions which  the  slavery  of  a  portion  of  the  population  im- 
pose, make  it  necessary  to  peace  that  we  should  all  live  under 
the  same  laws  and  respect  the  same  flag.  /_No  government 
could  long  control  its  own  people,  no  government  could  long 
exist,  that  would  allow  its  citizens  to  be  subject  to  such 
indignities  under  a  foreign  government  as  those  to  which  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States  heretofore  have  been  required 
to  submit  under  their  own,  for  the  sake  of  the  tranquillity  of 
the  South.  Nor  could  the  South,  with  its  present  purposes, 
live  on  terms  of  peace  with  any  foreign  nation,  between 
whose  people  and  its  own  there  was  no  division,  except  such 
an  one  as  might  be  maintained  by  means  of  forts,  frontier- 

VOL.  I.  B 


2  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

guards  and  custom-houses,  edicts,  passports  and  spies.  Scot- 
land, Wales,  and  Ireland  are  each  much  better  adapted  for  an 
independent  government,  and  under  an  independent  govern- 
ment would  be  far  more  likely  to  live  at  peace  with  England, 
than  the  South  to  remain  peaceably  separated  from  the  North 
of  this  country. 

It  is  said  that  the  South  can  never  be  subjugated.  It  must 
be,  or  we  must.  It  must  be,  or  not  only  our  American  re- 
public is  a  failure,  but  our  English  justice  and  our  English 
law  and  our  English,  freedom  are  failures.  This  Southern 
repudiation  of  obligations  upon  the  result  of  an  election  is  but 
a  clearer  warning  than  we  have  had  before,  that  these  cannot 
be  maintained  in  this  land  any  longer  in  such  intimate  as- 
sociation with  slavery  as  we  have  hitherto  tried  to  hope  thai 
they  might.  We  now  know  that  we  must  give  them  up,  or 
give  up  trying  to  accommodate  ourselves  to  what  the  South 
has  declared,  and  demonstrated,  to  be  the  necessities  of  its 
state  of  society.  Those  necessities  would  not  be  less,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  far  more  imperative,  were  the  south  an  inde- 
pendent people.  If  the  South  has  reason  to  declare  itself 
independent  of  our  long-honoured  constitution,  and  of  our 
common  court  of  our  common  laws,  on  account  of  a  past 
want  of  invariable  tenderness  on  the  part  of  each  one  of 
our  people  towards  its  necessities,  how  long  could  we  calcu- 
late to  be  able  to  preserve  ourselves  from  occurrences  which 
would  be  deemed  to  abrogate  the  obligations  of  a  mere  treaty 
of  peace  ?  A  treaty  of  peace  with  the  South  as  a  foreign 
power,  would  be  a  cowardly  armistice,  a  cruel  aggravation 
and  prolongation  of  war. 

(^Subjugation !  I  do  not  choose  the  word,  but  take  it,  and 
use  it  in  the  only  sense  in  which  it  can  be  applicable.  This 
is  a  Eepublic,  and  the  South  must  come  under  the  yoke  of 
freedom,  not  to  work  for  us.  but  to  work  with  us,  on  eqiial 


THE    PRESENT    CRISIS. 


terms,  as  a  free  people.  To  work  with  us,  for  the  security  of 
a  state  of  society,  the  ruling  purpose  and  tendency  of  which, 
spite  of  all  its  bendings  heretofore,  to  the  necessities  of  slavery  ; 
spite  of  the  incongruous  foreign  elements  which  it  has  had  con- 
stantly to  absorb  and  incorporate ;  spite  of  a  strong  element 
of  excessive  backwoods  individualism,  has,  beyond  all  question, 
been  favourable  to  sound  and  safe  progress  in  knowledge, 
civilization,  and  Christianity.  To  this  yoke  the  head  of  the 
South  must  now  be  lifted,  or  we  must  bend  our  necks  to  that 
of  slavery,  consenting  and  submitting,  even  more  than  we  have 
been  willing  to  do  heretofore,  to  labour  and  fight,  and  pay  for 
the  dire  needs  of  a  small  portion  of  our  people  living  in  an 
exceptional  state  of  society,  in  which  Cowper's  poems  must 
not  be  read  aloud  without  due  precautions  against  the  listen- 
ing of  family  servants  ;  in  which  it  may  be  treated  as  a  crime 
against  the  public  safety  to  teach  one  of  the  labouring  classes 
to  write  ;  in  which  the  names  of  Wilberforce  and  Buxton  are 
execrated  ;  within  which  the  slave  trade  is  perpetuated,  and  at 
the  capital  of  whose  rebellion,  black  seamen  born  free,  taken 
prisoners,  in  merchant  ships,  not  in  arms,  are  even  already 
sold  into  slavery  with  as  little  hesitation  as  ever  in  Barbary. 
One  system  or  the  other  is  to  thrive  and  extend,  and  eventually 
possess  and  govern  this  whole  land. 

This  has  been  long  felt  and  acted  upon  at  the  South  ;  and 
the  purpose  of  the  more  prudent  and  conservative  men,  now 
engaged  in  the  attempt  to  establish  a  new  government  in  the 
South,  was  for  a  long  time  simply  to  obtain  an  advantage  for 
what  was  talked  of  as  "  reconstruction ;"  namely,  a  process  of 
change  in  the  form  and  rules  of  our  government  that  would 
disqualify  us  of  the  Free  States  from  offering  any  resistance  to 
whatever  was  demanded  of  our  government,  for  the  end  in 
view  of  the  extension  and  eternal  maintenance  of  slavery. 
That  men  to  whom  the  terms  prudent  and  conservative  can  in 

B  2 


'i  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

any  way  be  applied,  should  not  have  foreseen  that  such  a 
scheme  must  be  unsuccessful,  only  presents  one  more  illus- 
tration of  that,  of  which  the  people  of  England  have  had  many 
in  their  own  history,  the  moral  inyopism,  to  which  the  habit 
of  almost  constantly  looking  down  and  never  up  at  mankind, 
always  predisposes.  That  the  true  people  of  the  United 
States  could  have  allowed  the  mutiny  to  proceed  so  far,  before 
rising  in  their  strength  to  resist  it,  is  due  chiefly  to  the  in- 
stinctive reliance  which  every  grumbler  really  gets  to  have 
under  our  forms  of  society,  in  the  ultimate  common-sense  of 
the  great  body  of  the  people,  and  to  the  incredulity  with  which 
the  report  has  been  regarded,  that  slavery  had  made  such  a 
vast  difference  between  the  character  of  the  South  and  that 
of  the  country  at  large.  Few  were  fully  convinced  that  the 
whole  proceedings  of  the  insurgents  meant  anything  else  than 
a  more  than  usually  bold  and  scandalous  way  of  playing  the 
game  of  brag,  to  which  we  had  been  so  long  used  in  our 
politics,  and  of  which  the  people  of  England  had  a  little 
experience  shortly  before  the  passage  of  a  certain  Reform  Bill. 
The  instant  effect  of  the  first  shotted-gun  that  was  fired  proves 
this.  We  knew  then  that  we  had  to  subjugate  slavery,  or  be 
subjugated  by  it. 

Peace  is  now  not  possible  until  the  people  of  the  South  are 
well  convinced  that  the  form  of  society,  to  fortify  which  is  the 
ostensible  purpose  of  the  war  into  which  they  have  been 
plunged,  is  not  worthy  fighting  for,  or  until  we  think  the 
sovereignty  of  our  convictions  of  Justice,  Freedom,  Law  and 
the  conditions  of  Civilization  in  this  land  to  be  of  less  worth 
than  the  lives  and  property  of  our  generation. 

From  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Mexican  Gulf,  freedom 
must  everywhere"  give  way  to  the  necessities  of  slavery,  or 
slavery  must  be  accommodated  to  the  necessary  incidents  of 
freedom. 


THE   PRESENT    CRISIS. 


Where  the  hopes  and  sympathies  of  Englishmen  will  be, 
we  well  know. 

"  The  necessity  to  labour  is  incompatible  with  a  high 
civilization,  and  with  heroic  spirit  in  those  subject  to  it." 

"The  institution  of  African  slavery  is  a  means  more 
effective  than  any  other  yet  devised,  for  relieving  a  large  body 
of  men  from  the  necessity  of  labour;  consequently,  states 
which  possess  it  must  be  stronger  in  statesmanship  and  in 
war,  than  those  which  do  not ;  especially  must  they  be . 
stronger  than  states  in  which  there  is  absolutely  no  privi- 
leged class,  but  all  men  are  held  to  be  equal  before  the  law." 

"  The  civilized  world  is  dependent  upon  the  Slave  States 
of  America  for  a  supply  of  cotton.  The  demand  for  this  com- 
modity has,  during  many  years,  increased  faster  than  the 
supply.  Sales  are  made  of  it,  now,  to  the  amount  of  two 
hundred  millions  of  dollars  in  a  year,  yet  they  have  a  vast 
area  of  soil  suitable  for  its  production  which  has  never  been 
broken.  With  an  enormous  income,  then,  upon  a  steadily 
rising  market,  they  hold  a  vast  idle  capital  yet  to  be  employed. 
Such  a  monopoly  under  such  circumstances  must  constitute 
those  who  possess  it  the  richest  and  most  powerful  people  on 
the  earth.  The  world  must  have  cotton,  and  the  world 
depends  on  them  for  it.  Whatever  they  demand,  that  must 
be  conceded  them ;  whatever  they  want,  they  have  but  to 
stretch  forth  their  hands  and  take  it." 

These  fallacies,  lodged  in  certain  minds,  generated,  long  ago, 
grand  ambitions,  and  bold  schemes  of  conquest  and  wealth. 
The  people  of  the  North  stood  in  the  way  of  these  schemes. 
In  the  minds  of  the  schemers,  labour  had  been  associated  with 
servility,  meekness,  cowardice ;  and  they  were  persuaded  that 
n\\  men  not  degraded  by  labour  at  the  North  "kept  aloof 


6  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

from  politics,"  or  held  their  judgment  in  entire  subjection  to 
the  daily  wants  of  a  working  population,  of  no  more  spirit 
anil  no  more  patriotism  than  their  own*  working  men — slaves. 
They  believed  this  whole  people  to  be  really  in  a  state  of  de- 
pendence, and  that  they  controlled  that  upon  which  they 
depended.  So,  to  a  hitherto  vague  and  inert  local  partisan- 
ship, they  brought  a  purpose  of  determination  to  overcome 
the  North,  and,  as  this  could  not  be  safely  avowed,  there  was 
the  necessity  for  a  conspiracy,  and  for  the  cloak  of  a  con- 
spiracy. By  means  the  most  mendacious,  the  ignorant, 
proud,  jealous,  and  violent  free  population  of  the  cotton 
States  and  their  dependencies,  were  persuaded  that  less  con- 
sideration was  paid  to  their  political  demands  than  the  im- 
portance of  their  contentment  entitled  them  to  expect  from 
their  government,  and  were  at  length  decoyed  into  a  state  of 
angry  passion,  in  which  they  only  needed  leaders  of  sufficient 
audacity  to  bring  them  into  open  rebellion.  Assured  thai^ 
their  own  power  if  used  would  be  supreme,  and  that  they  had 
but  to  offer  sufficient  evidence  of  a  violent  and  dangerous 
determination  to  overawe  the  sordid  North,  and  make  it 
submit  to  a  "  reconstruction  "  of  the  nation  in  a  form  more 
advantageous  to  themselves,  they  were  artfully  led  along  in 
a  constant  advance,  and  constant  failure  of  attempts  at  in- 
timidation, until  at  length  they  must  needs  take  part  in  a 
desperate  rebellion,  or  accept  a  position  which,  after  the 
declarations  they  had  made  for  the  purpose  of  intimidation, 
they  could  not  do  without  humiliation. 

The  conspirators  themselves  have,  until  recently,  been  able, 
either  directly  or  by  impositions  upon  patriotic,  but  too  con- 
fiding and  generous  instruments,  to  control  the  treasury  of 
the  United  States,  its  post-office,  its  army  and  navy,  its 
arsenals,  workshops,  dockyards  and  fortresses,  and,  by  the 
simple  means  of  perjury,  to  either  turn  these  agencies  against 


THE    PHESENT    CRISIS.  7 

the  government,  or  at  least  render  them  ineffectual  to  aid  it, 
and  this  at  a  time,  when  its  very  existence,  if  it  were  anything 
but  a  democratic  republican  government,  and,  as  we  think 
for  all  good  purposes,  by  far  the  strongest  that  ever  existed, 
would  have  depended  on  a  perfect  instant  and  unquestionable 
command  of  them.  Yet  I  doubt  not  that  the  conspirators 
themselves,  trust  at  this  moment,  as  they  ever  have  trusted, 
even  less  to  the  supposed  helpless  condition  of  the  govern- 
ment than  to  the  supposed  advantages  of  the  cotton  mono- 
poly to  the  Slave  States,  and  to  the  supposed  superiority  of  & 
community  of  privileged  classes  over  an  actual  democracy. 

"  No  !  you  dare  not  make  war  upon  cotton ;  no  power  on 
earth  dares  to  make  war  upon  it.  Cotton  is  king  ;  until 
lately  the  Bank  of  England  was  king ;  but  she  tried  to  put 
her  screws,  as  usual,  the  fall  before  the  last,  on  the  cotton 
crop,  and  was  utterly  vanquished.  The  last  power  has  been 
conquered :  who  can  doubt,  that  has  looked  at  recent  events, 
that  cotton  is  supreme  ?" 

These  are  the  defiant  and  triumphant  words  of  Governor 
Hammond,  of  South  Carolina,  addressed  to  the  Senate,  of  the 
United  States,  March  4th,  1858.  Almost  every  important 
man  of  the  South,  has  at  one  time  or  other,  within  a  few 
years,  been  betrayed  into  the  utterance  of  similar  exultant 
anticipations  ;  and  the  South  would  never  have  been  led  into 
the  great  and  terrible  mistake  it  has  made,  had  it  not  been 
for  this  confident  conviction  in  the  minds  of  the  men  who 
have  been  passing  for  its  statesmen.  Whatever  moral  strength 
the  rebellion  has,  abroad  or  at  home,  lies  chiefly  in  the  fact 
that  this  conviction  is  also  held,  more  or  less  distinctly,  by 
multitudes  who  know  perfectly  well  that  the  commonly  assigned 
reasons  for  it  are  based  on  falsehoods. 


0  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

Kecently,  a  banker,  who  is  and  always  has  been  a  loyal 
union  man,  said,  commenting  upon  certain  experiences  of 
mine  narrated  in  this  book :  "  The  South  cannot  be  poor. 
Why"  their  last  crop  alone  was  worth  two  hundred  million. 
They  must  be  rich  :"  ergo,  say  the  conspirators,  adopting  the 
same  careless  conclusion,  they  must  be  powerful,  and  the 
world  must  feel  their  power,  and  respect  them  and  their  in- 
stitutions. 

My  own  observation  of  the  real  condition  of  the  people  of 
our  Slave  States,  gave  me,  on  the  contrary,  an  impression  that 
the  cotton  monopoly  in  some  way  did  them  more  harm  than 
good  ;  and,  although  the  written  narration  of  what  I  saw  was 
not  intended  to  set  this  forth,  upon  reviewing  it  for  the  pre- 
sent publication,  I  find  the  impression  has  become  a  conviction. 

1  propose  here,  therefore,  to  show  how  the  main  body  of  the 
observations  of  the  book  arrange  themselves  in  my  mind  with 
reference  to  this  question,  and  also  to  inquire  how  far  the  con- 
clusion to  which  I  think  they  tend  is  substantiated  by  the 
Ceftsus  returns  of  those  States.* 

Coming  directly  from  my  farm  in  New  York  to  Eastern 
Virginia,  I  was  satisfied,  after  a  few  weeks'  observation,  that 
the  most  of  the  people  lived  very  poorly ;  that  the  proportion 
of  men  improving  their  condition  was  much  less  than  in  any 
Northern  community  ;  and  that  the  natural  resources  of  the 
land  were  strangely  unused,  or  were  used  with  poor  economy. 
It  was  "  the  hiring  season,"  and  I  had  daily  opportunities  of 
talking  with  farmers,  manufacturers,  miners,  and  labourers, 
with  whom  the  value  of  labour  and  of  wages  was  then  the 
handiest  subject  of  conversation.  I  soon  perceived  that  labour 

*  I  greatly  regret,  after  visiting  Washington  for  this  purpose,  to  find  that  the 
returns  of  the  Census  of  1860,  are  not  yet  sufficiently  verified  and  digested  to  be 
given  to  the  public.  I  have  therefore  had  to  fall  back  upon  those  of  1850.  Tfie 
rate  of  increase  of  the  slave  population  in  the  meantime  is  stated  at  25  per  cent. 


• 

THE   PRESENT    CRISIS.  9 

was  much  more  readily  classified  and  measured  with  reference 
to  its  quality  than  at  the  North.  The  limit  of  measure  I 
found  to  be  the  ordinary  day's  work  of  a  "  pjrimejield -Jiand, " 
and  a  prime  field-hand,  I  found  universally  understood  to  mean, 
not  a  man  who  would  split  two  cords  of  wood,  or  cradle  two 
acres  of  grain  in  a  day,  but  a  man  for  whom  a  "  trader  " 
would  give  a  thousand  dollars;"  wffloTe,  to  take  on  South,  for 
sale  to  a  cotton  planter.  I  do  not  mean  that  the  alternative 
of  a  sale  to  a  trader  was  always  had  in  view  in  determining 
how  a  man  should  be  employed.  To  be  just,  this  seldom 
appeared  to  be  the  case — but  that,  in  estimating  the  market 
value  of  his  labour,  he  was  viewed,  for  the  time,  from  the 
trader's  point  of  view,  or,  as  if  the  question  were — What  is-  he 
worth  for  cotton  ? 

I  sunn  a^vrtainrd  that  a  much  la ;•:,'< T  number  of  Lands,  at 
much  larger  aggregate  wages,  was  commonly  reckoned  to  be 
required  to  accomplish  certain  results,  than  would  have  been 
the  case  at  the  North.  Not  all  results,  but  certain  results, 
of  a  kind  in  which  it  happened  that  I  could  most  readily 
make  a  confident  comparison.  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of 
watching  men  at  work,  and  of  judging  of  their  industry,  their 
skill,  their  spirit ;  in  short,  of  whatever  goes  to  make  up  their 
value  to  their  employers,  or  to  the  community,  as  instruments 
of  production ;  and  from  day  to  day  I  saw  that,  as  a  land- 
owner, or  as  a  citizen,  in  a  community  largely  composed,  or 
dependent  upon  the  productive  industry,  of  working  people  of 
such  habits  and  disposition  as  I  constantly  saw  evinced  in 
those  of  Virginia,  I  should  feel  disheartened,  and  myself  lose 
courage,  spirit,  and  industry.  The  close  proximity  of  the 
better  and  cheaper  labour — labour  seeking  a  field  of  labour — 
,  which  I  had  left  behind  me,  added  greatly  to  my  interest  in 
the  subject,  and  stimulated  close  inquiry.  It  seemed,  indeed, 
quite  incredible  that  there  really  could  be  such  a  want  of 


10  COTTON  AND    SLAVERY. 

better  labour  in  this  region  as  at  first  sight  there  appeared  to 
be,  when  a  supply  was  so  near  at  hand.  I  compared  notes 
with  every  Northern  man  I  met  who  had  been  living  for  some 
time  in  Virginia,  and  some  I  found  able  to  give  me  quite 
exact  statements  of  personal  experience,  with  which,  in  the 
cases  they  mentioned,  it  could  not  be  doubted  that  labourers 
costing,  all  things  considered,  the  same  wages,  had  taken  four 
times  as  long  to  accomplish  certain  tasks  of  rude  work  in 
Virginia  as  at  the  North,  and  that  in  house  service,  four 
servants  accomplished  less,  while  they  required  vastly  more 
looking  after,  than  one  at  the  North. 

I  left  Virginia,  having  remained  much  longer  than  I  at  first 
intended,  in  trying  to  satisfy  myself  about  this  matter — quite 
satisfied  as  to  the  general  fact,  not  at  all  satisfied  with  any 
theories  of  demand  and  supply  which  had  been  offered  me, 
or  which  had  occurred  to  me,  in  the  way  of  explanation  of  it. 

My  perplexity  was  increased  by  certain  apparent  exceptions 
to  the  general  rule  ;  but  they  were,  all  things  considered,  un- 
important, and  rather  served  as  affording  contrasts,  on  the 
ground,  to  satisfy  me  of  the  correctness  of  my  general  con- 
clusion. 

I  subsequently  returned,  and  spent  another  month  in 
Virginia,  after  visiting  the  cotton  States,  and  I  also  spent 
three  months  in  Kentucky  and  other  parts  of  the  Slave  States 
where  the  climate  is  unsuitable  for  the  production  of  cotton, 
and  with  the  information  which  I  had  in  the  meantime 
obtained,  I  continued  to  study  both  the  question  of  fact,  and 
the  question  of  cause.  The  following  conclusions  to  which 
my  mind  tended  strongly  in  the  first  month,  though  I  did 
not  then  adopt  them  altogether  with  confidence,  were  esta- 
blished at  length  in  my  convictions. 

1.  The  cash  value  of  a  slave's  labour  in  Virginia  is,  practi- 
cally, the  cash  value  of  the  same  labour  minus  the 


THE   PRESENT    CRISIS. 


11 


I 

cost  of  its  transportation,  acclimatizing,  and  breaking 
in  to  cotton-culture  in  Mississippi. 

2.  The  cost  of  production,  or  the  development  of  natural 

wealth  in  Virginia,  is  regulated  by  the  cost  of  slave- 
labour  :  (that  is  to  say)  the  competition  of  white 
labour  does  not  materially  reduce  it ;  though  it  doubt- 
less has  some  effect,  at  least  in  certain  districts,  and 
with  reference  to  certain  productions  or  branches  of 
industry. 

3.  Taking  infants,  aged,  invalid,  and  vicious  and  knavish 

slaves  into  account,  the  ordinary  and  average  cost  of 
a  certain  task  of  labour  is  more  than  double  in 
Virginia  what  it  is  in  the  Free  States  adjoining. 

4.  The  use  of  land  and  nearly  all  other  resources  of  wealth 

in  Virginia  is  much  less  valuable  than  the  use  of 
similar  property  in  the  adjoining  Free  States,  these 
resources  having  no  real  value  until  labour  is  applied 
to  them.  (The  Census  returns  of  1850  show  that  the 
sale  value  of  farm  lands  by  the  acre  in  Virginia  is  less 
than  one-third  the  value  of  farm  lands  in  the  ad- 
joining Free  State  of  Pennsylvania,  and  less  than 
one-fifth  than  that  of  the  farm  lands  of  the  neigh- 
bouring Free  State  of  New  Jersey.)* 

5.  Beyond  the  bare  necessities  of  existence,  poor  shelter, 

poor  clothing,  and  the  crudest  diet,  the  mass  of  the 
citizen  class  of  Virginia  earn  very  little  and  are  very 
poor — immeasurably  poorer  than  the  mass  of  the 
people  of  the  adjoining  Free  States. 

6.  So  far  as  this  poverty  is  to  be  attributed  to  personal 

constitution,  character,  and  choice,  it  is  not  the  result 
of  climate. 

7.  What  is  true  of  Virginia  is  measurably  true  of  all  the 

*  See  Appendix,  ^.  2. 


12  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

border  Slave  States,  though  in  special  cases  the  re- 
sistance of  slavery  to  a  competition  of  free  labour  is 
more  easily  overcome.  In  proportion  as  this  is  the 
case,  the  cost  of  production  is  less,  the  value  of  pro- 
duction greater,  the  comfort  of  the  people  is  greater^ 
they  are  advancing  in  wealth  as  they  are  in  intelli- 
gence, which  is  the  best  form  or  result  of  wealth. 

I  went  on  my  way  into  the  so-called  cotton  States,  within 
which  I  travelled  over,  first  and  last,  at  least  three  thousand 
miles  of  roads,  from  which  not  a  cotton  plant  was  to  be  seen, 
and  the  people  living  by  the  side  of  which  certainly  had  not 
been  made  rich  by  cotton  or  anything  else.  And  for  every 
mile  of  road-side  upon  which  I  saw  any  evidence  of  cotton 
production,  I  am  sure  that  I  saw  a  hundred  of  forest  or  waste 
knd,  with  only  now  and  then  an  acre  or  two  of  poor  com  half 
smothered  in  weeds ;  for  every  rich  man's  house,  I  am  sure 
that  I  passed  a  dozen  shabby  and  half-furnished  cottages,  and 
at  least  a  hundred  cabins — mere  hovels,  such  as  none  but 
a  poor  farmer  would  house  his  cattle  in  at  the  North.  And 
I  think  that,  for  every  man  of  refinement  and  education  with 
whom  I  came  in  contact,  there  were  a  score  or  two  superior 
only  in  the  virtue  of  silence,  and  in  the  manner  of  self- 
complacency,  to  the  sort  of  people  we  should  expect  to  find 
paying  a  large  price  for  a  place  from  which  a  sight  could  be 
got  at  a  gallows  on  an  execution  day  at  the  North,  and  a 
much  larger  number  of  what  poor  men  at  the  North  would 
themselves  describe  as  poor  men :  not  that  they  were  destitute 
of  certain  things  which  are  cheap  at  the  South, — fuel  for  in- 
stance,— but  that  they  were  almost  wholly  destitute  of  things 
the  possession  of  which,  at  the  North,  would  indicate  that  a 
man  had  begun  to  accumulate  capital — more  destitute  of  these, 
on  an  average,  than  our  day-labourers.  In  short,  except  in 


THE  PRESENT   CRISIS.  13 

certain  limited  districts,  mere  streaks  by  the  side  of  rivers, 
and  in  a  few  isolated  spots  of  especially  favoured  soil  away 
from  these,  I  found  the  same  state  of  things  which  I  had 
seen  in  Virginia,  but  in  a  more  aggravated  form. 

At  least  five  hundred  white  men  told  me  something  of  their 
own  lives  and  fortunes,  across  their  own  tables,  and  with  the 
means  of  measuring  the  weight  of  their  words  before  my  eyes  ; 
and  I  know  that  while  men  seldom  want  an  abundance  of 
coarse  food  in  the  cotton  States,  the  proportion  of  the  free 
white  men  who  live  as  well  in  any  respect  as  our  working 
classes  at  the  North,  on  an  average,  is  small,  and  the  citizens 
of  the  cotton  States,  as  a  whole,  are  poor.  They  work  little, 
and  that  little,  badly ;  they  earn  little,  they  sell  little ;  they 
buy  little,  and  they  have  little — very  little — of  the  common 
comforts  and  consolations  of  civilized  life.  Their  destitution 
is  not  material  only;  it  is  intellectual  and  it  is  moral.  I 
know  not  what  virtues  they  have  that  rude  men  everywhere 
have  not ;  but  those  which  are  commonly  attributed  to  them, 
I  am  sure  that  they  lack :  they  are  not  generous  or  hos- 
pitable ;  and,  to  be  plain,  I  must  say  that  their  talk  is  not  the 
talk  of  even  courageous  men  elsewhere.  They  boast  and  lack 
self-restraint,  yet,  when  not  excited,  are  habitually  reserved 
and  guarded  in  expressions  of  opinion  very  much  like  cowardly 
men  elsewhere. 

But,  much  cotton  is  produced  in  the  cotton  States,  and  by 
the  labour  of  somebody ;  much  cotton  is  sold  and  somebody 
must  be  paid  for  it ;  there  are  rich  people ;  there  are  good 
markets  ;  there  is  hospitality,  refinement,  virtue,  courage,  and 
urbanity  at  the  South.  All  this  is  proverbially  true.  Who 
produces  the  cotton  ?  who  is  paid  for  it  ?  where  are,  and  who 
are,  the  rich  and  gentle  people  ? 

I  can  answer  in  part  at  least. 

I  have  been   on  plantations   on  the  Mississippi,  the  Red 


14  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

Kiver,  and  the  Brazos  bottoms,  whereon  I  was  assured  that 
ten  bales  of  cotton  to  each  average  prime  field-hand  had  been 
raised.     The  soil  was  a  perfect  garden  mould,  well  drained 
and  guarded  by  levees  against  the  floods ;    it  was  admirably 
tilled ;  I  have  seen  but  few  Northern  farms  so  well  tilled :  the 
labourers  were,  to  a  large  degree,  tall,  slender,  sinewy,  young 
men,  who  worked  from  dawn  to  dusk,  not  with  spirit,  but 
with  steadiness  and  constancy.     They  had  good  tools ;  their 
rations  of  bacon  and  corn  were  brought  to  them  in  the  field, 
and  eaten  with  efficient  despatch  between  the  cotton  plants. 
They  had  the  best  sort  of  gins  and  presses,  so  situated  that 
from  them  cotton  bales  could  be  rolled  in  five  minutes  to  steam- 
boats, bound  direct  to   the  ports  on   the  gulf.     They  were 
superintended  by  skilful  and  vigilant  overseers.     These  plan- 
tations were  all  large,  so  large  as  to  yet  contain  much  fresh 
land,  ready  to  be  worked  as  soon  as  the  cultivated  fields  gave 
out  in  fertility.     If  it  was  true  that  ten  bales  of  cotton  to  the 
hand  had  been  raised  on  them,  then  their  net  profit  for  the 
year  had  been,  not  less  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  for 
each  hand  employed.     Even  at  seven  bales  to  the  hand  the 
profits   of  cotton   planting   are   enormous.     Men  who   have 
plantations  producing  at  this  rate,  can  well  afford  to  buy  fresh 
hands  at  fourteen  hundred  dollars  a  head.     They  can  even 
afford  to  employ  such  hands  for  a  year  or  two  in  clearing  land, 
ditching,    leveeing,    fencing,    and    other    preparatory   work, 
buying,  meantime,  all  the   corn  and  bacon  they  need,  and 
getting  the  best  kind  of  tools  and  cattle,  and  paying  fifteen 
per  cent,  per  annum  interest  on  all  the  capital  required  for 
this,  as  many  of  them  do.     All  this  can  be  well  afforded  to 
establish  new  plantations  favourably  situated,  on  fresh  soil, 
if  there  is  a  reasonable  probability  that  they  can  after  all  be 
made  to  produce  half  a  dozen  seven-bale  crops.     And  a  great 
many  large  plantations  do  produce  seven  bales  to  the  hand 


THE   PRESENT    CRISIS.  15 

for  years  in  succession.  A  great  many  more  produce  seven 
bales  occasionally.  A  few  produce  even  ten  bales  occasionally, 
though  by  no  means  as  often  as  is  reported. 

Now,  it  is  not  at  a  Roman  lottery  alone  that  one  may  see  it, 
but  all  over  the  world,  where  a  few  very  large  prizes  are 
promised  and  many  very  small  ones,  and  the  nitmber  of 
tickets  is  limited ;  these  are  always  speculated  on,  and  men 
will  buy  them  at  third  and  fourth  hand  at  prices  which,  it  is 
useless  to  demonstrate  to  them,  must  be  extravagant.  They 
go  to  the  Jews  and  pledge  the  clothes  on  their  back  to  get 
another  biacchi  to  invest ;  they  beggar  themselves ;  they  ruin 
their  families ;  they  risk  damnation  in  their  passionate  eager- 
ness to  have  a  chance,  when  they  know  perfectly  well  that 
the  average  of  chances  is  not  worth  a  tithe  of  what  they  must 
pay  for  it. 

The  area  of  land  on  which  cotton  may  be  raised  with  profit 
is  practically  limitless ;  it  is  cheap ;  even  the  best  land  is 
cheap ;  but  to  the  large  planter  it  is  much  more  valuable 
when  held  in  large  parcels,  for  obvious  reasons,  than  when  in 
small ;  consequently  the  best  land  can  hardly  be  obtained  in 
small  tracts  or  without  the  use  of  a  considerable  capital.  But 
there  are  millions  of  acres  of  land  yet  untouched,  which  if 
leveed  and  drained  and  fenced,  and  well  cultivated,  might  be 
made  to  produce  with  good  luck  seven  or  more  bales  to  the 
hand.  It  would  cost  comparatively  little  to  accomplish  it — - 
one  lucky  crop  would  repay  all  the  outlay  for  land  and  improve- 
ments— if  it  were  not  for  "  the  hands."  The  supply  of  hands 
is  limited.  It  does  not  increase  in  the  ratio  of  the  increase 
of  the  cotton  demand.  If  cotton  should  double  in  price  next 
year,  or  become  worth  its  weight  in  gold,  the  number  of 
negroes  in  the  United  States  would  not  increase  four  per 
cent,  unless  the  African  slave-trade  were  re-established.  Now 
step  into  a  dealer's  "jail"  in  Memphis,  Montgomery,  Vicks- 


• 

16  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

burg,  or  New  Orleans,  and  you  will  hear  the  mezzano  of  the 
cotton  lottery  crying  his  tickets  in  this  way :  "  There's  a 
cotton  nigger  for  you  !  Genuine  !  Look  at  his  toes  !  Look 
at  his  fingers  !  There's  a  pair  of  legs  for  you !  If  you  have 
got  the  right  sile  and  the  right  sort  of  overseer,  buy  him,  and 
put  your  trust  in  Providence  !  He's  just  as  good  for  ten  bales 
as  I  am  for  a  julep  at  eleven  o'clock."  And  this  is  just  as 
true  as  that  any  named  horse  is  sure  to  win  the  Derby.  And 
so  the  price  of  good  labourers  is  constantly  gambled  up  to  a 
point,  where,  if  they  produce  ten  bales  to  the  hand,  the  pur- 
chaser will  be  as  fortunate  as  he  who  draws  the  high  prize  of 
the  lottery ;  where,  if  they  produce  seven  bales  to  the  hand, 
he  will  still  be  in  luck  ;  where,  if  rot,  or  worm,  or  floods,  or 
untimely  rains  or  frosts  occur,  reducing  the  crop  to  one  or  two 
bales  to  the  hand,  as  is  often  the  case,  the  purchaser  will  have 
drawn  a  blank. 

That,  all  things  considered,  the  value  of  the  labour  of  slaves 
does  not,  on  an  average,  by  any  means  justify  the  price  paid 
for  it,  is  constantly  asserted  by  the  planters,  and  it  is  true. 
At  least  beyond  question  it  is  true,  and  I  think  that  I  have 
shown  why,  that  there  is  no  difficulty  in  finding  purchasers 
for  all  the  good  slaves  that  can  be  got  by  traders,  at  prices 
considerably  more  than  they  are  worth  for  the  production  of 
cotton  under  ordinary  circumstances.  The  supply  being 
limited,  those  who  grow  cotton  on  the  most  productive  soils, 
and  with  the  greatest  advantages  in  all  other  respects,  not 
only  can  afford  to  pay  more  than  others,  for  all  the  slaves 
which  can  be  brought  into  market,  but  they  are  driven  to  a 
ruinous  competition  among  themselves,  and  slaves  thus  get  a 
fictitious  value  like  stocks  "  in  a  corner."  The  buyers  indeed 
axe  often  "cornered,"  and  it  is  only  the  rise  which  almost 
annually  has  occurred  in  the  value  of  cotton  that  has  hitherto 
saved  them  from  general  bankruptcy.  Nearly  all  the  large 


THE   PKESENT    CRISIS.  17 

planters  carry  a  heavy  load  of  debt  from  year  to  year,  till  a 
lucky  crop  coincident  with  a  rise  in  the  price  of  cotton  relieves 
them. 

The  whole  number  of  slaves  engaged  in  cotton  culture  at  the 
Census  of  1850  was  reckoned  by  De  Bow  to  be  1,800,000,*  the 
crops  at  2,400,000  bales,  which  is  a  bale  and  a  third  to  each 
head  of  slaves.  This  was  the  largest  crop  between  1846  and 
1852.'  Other  things  being  equal,  for  reasons  already  indicated, 
the  smaller  the  estate  of  slaves,  the  less  is  their  rate  of  pro- 
duction per  head ;  and,  as  a  rule,  the  larger  the  slave  estate  the 
larger  is  the  production  per  head.  The  number  of  slaves  in 
cotton  plantations  held  by  owners  of  fifty  and  upwards  is, 
as  nearly  as  it  can  be  fixed  by  the  Census  returns,  420,000. 

If  these  produce  on  an  average  only  two  and  a  half  bales 
per  head  (man,  woman,  and  child),  and  double  this  is  not 
extraordinary  on  the  large  plantations  of  the  South-west,t  it 
leaves  an  average  for  the  smaller  plantations  of  seven-eighths  of 
a  bale  per  head.  These  plantations  are  mostly  in  the  interior, 
with  long  haulage  and  boatage  to  market.  To  the  small 
planter  in  the  interior,  his  cotton  crop  does  not  realize,  as  an 
average  plantation  price,  more  than  seven  cents  a  pound,  or 
thirty  dollars  the  bale  4  Those  who  plant  cotton  in  this 
small  way  usually  raise  a  crop  of  corn,  and  some  little  else,  not 
enough,  take  the  country  through,  one  year  with  another,  to 

*  Official  Census — Compend.,  p.  94. 

•f  Messrs.  Neill  Brothers,  cotton  merchants  of  New  Orleans,  the  most  pains- 
taking collectors  of  information  about  the  cotton  crop  in  the  country,  state,  in  a 
recent  circular,  that  many  of  the  Mississippi  cotton  plantations  last  year,  after  an 
extraordinary  fertilizing  flood,  produced  sixteen  bales  to  the  hand.  The  slaves  on 
these  plantations  being  to  a  large  extent  picked  hands,  as  I  elsewhere  show,  the 
production  per  head  was  fully  eight  bales. 

J  In  a  careful  article  in  the  Austin  State  Gazette,  six  and  a  quarter  cents  is 
given  as  the  average  net  price  of  cotton  in  Texas.  The  small  planters,  having  no 
gins  or  presses  of  their  own,  usually  have  their  cotton  prepared  for  maiket  by 
large  planters,  for  which  service  they  of  course  have  to  pay. 

VOL.  I.  C 


18  COTTON    AND    SLAVEHY. 

supply  themselves  and  their  slaves  with  food ;  certainly  not 
more  than  enough  to  do  so,  on  an  average.  To  this  the 
Southern  agricultural  periodicals  frequently  testify.  They 
generally  raise  nothing  for  sale,  hut  cotton.  And  of  cotton 
their  sale,  as  has  been  shown,  amounted  in  1849 — a  favourable 
year — to  less  than  the  value  of  twenty-five  dollars  for  each 
slave,  young  and  old,  which  they  had  kept  through  the  year.* 
Deducting  those  who  hold  slaves  only  as  domestic  servants 
from  the  whole  number  of  slaveholders  returned  by  the 
Census,  more  than  half  of  all  the  slaveholders,  and  fully  half  of 
all  the  cotton-sellers,  own  each,  not  more  than  one  family,  on 
an  average,  of  five  slaves  of  all  ages.f  The  ordinary  total 
cash  income,  then,  in  time  of  peace,  of  fully  half  our  cotton- 
planters,  cannot  be  reckoned  at  more  than  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  dollars,  or,  in  extraordinary  years,  like  the  last,  at, 
say,  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  From  this  they  must 
purchase  whatever  clothing  and  other  necessaries  they  require 
for  the  yearly  supply  of  an  average  of  more  than  ten  persons 
(five  whites  and  five  slaves),  as  well  as  obtain  tools,  mechanics' 
work  and  materials,  and  whatever  is  necessary  for  carrying  on 
the  work  of  a  plantation,  usually  of  some  hundred  acres,:}: 
and  must  yet  save  enough  to  pay  the  fees  of  doctors,  clergy, 
and  lawyers,  if  they  have  had  occasion  to  employ  them,  and 
their  county  and  state  taxes  (we  will  say  nothing  of  the 
education  of  their  children,  or  of  accumulations  for  the  war 
expenses  of  the  Confederation).  My  personal  experience  of 
the  style  of  living  of  the  greater  number  of  cotton-planters 

*  There  have  heen  much  larger  aggregate  crops  since,  and  the  price  may  be  a 
cent  more  to. the  planter,  bu£  the  number  of  slaves  drawn  to  the  larger  plantations 
in  the  meantime  has  increased  in  quite  equal  proportion. 

t  Census  Compend.,  p.  95. 

J  The  average  size  of  plantations  in  the  South-west,  including  the  farms  and 
"  patches  "  of  the  non-slaveholders,  is  273  acres  (p.  170,  C.  Compend.).  Cotton 
plantations  are  not  generally  of  less  than  400  acres. 


\ 

THE   PRESENT    CRISIS.  19 

leads  me  to  think  this  not  an  unfair  estimate.  It  is  mainly 
based  upon  the  official  returns  and  calculations  of  the  United N- 
States  Census  of  1850,  as  prepared  by  Mr.  De  Bow,  a  leading 
secessionist,  and  it  assumes  nothing  which  is  not  conceded  in 
the  article  on  cotton  .jn  his  Resources  of  the  South.  A 
majority  of  those  who  sell  the  cotton  crop  of  the  United 
States  must  be  miserably  poor — poorer  than  the  majority  of 
our  day-labourers  at  the  North. 

A  similar  calculation  will  indicate  that  the  planters  who  own 
on  an  average  two  slave  families  each,  can  sell  scarcely  more 
than  three  hundred  dollars'  worth  of  cotton  a  year,  on  an 
average ;  which  also  entirely  agrees  with  my  observations.  I 
have  seen  many  a  workman's  lodging  at  the  North,  and  in 
England  too,  where  there  was  double  the  amount  of  luxury 
that  I  ever  saw  in  a  regular  cotton-planter's  house  on  planta- 
tions of  three  cabins. 

The  next  class  of  which  the  Census  furnishes  us  means  of 
considering  separately,  are  planters  whose  slaves  occupy,  on 
an  average,  seven  cabins,  lodging  five  each  on  an  average, 
including  the  house  servants,  aged,  invalids,  and  children. 
The  average  income  of  planters  of  this  class,  I  reckon  from 
similar  data,  to  be  hardly  more  than  that  of  a  private  of  the 
New  York  Metropolitan  Police  Force.  'It  is  doubtless  true 
that  cotton  is  cultivated  profitably,  that  is  to  say,  so  as  to 
produce  a  fair  rate  of  interest  on  the  capital  of  the  planter,  on 
many  plantations  of  this  class  ;  but  this  can  hardly  be  the  case 
on  an  average,  all  things  considered. 

It  is  not  so  with  many  plantations  of  the  next  larger  class 
even,  but  it  would  appear  to  be  so  with  these  on  an  average. 
That  is  to  say,  where  the  quarters  of  a  cotton  plantation 
number  half  a  score  of  cabins  or  more,  (which  method  of 
classification  I  use  that  travellers  may  the  more  readily  recall 
their  observations  of  the  appearance  of  such  plantations,  when 

c  2 


20  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

I  think  that  their  recollections  will  confirm  these  calculations) 
there  are  usually  other  advantages  for  the  cultivation,  cleaning, 
pressing,  shipping,  and  disposing  of  cotton,  by  the  aid  of 
which  the  owner  obtains  a  fair  return  for  the  capital  invested, 
and  may  be  supposed  to  live,  if  he  knows  how,  in  a  moderately 
comfortable  way.  The  whole  number  of  slaveholders  of  this 
large  class  in  all  the  Slave  States  is,  according  to  De  Bow's 
Compendium  of  the  Census,  7,929,  among  which  are  all  the 
great  sugar,  rice,  and  tobacco-planters.  Less  than  seven 
thousand,  certainly,  are  cotton-planters. 

A  large  majority  of  these  live,  when  they  live  on  their 
plantations  at  all,  in  districts,  almost  the  only  white  popu- 
lation of  which  consists  of  owners  and  overseers  of  the  same 
class  of  plantations  with  their  own.  The  nearest  other  whites 
will  be  some  sand-hill  vagabonds,  generally  miles  away, 
between  whom  and  these  planters,  intercourse  is  neither  inti- 
mate nor  friendly. 

It  is  hardly  worth  while  to  build  much  of  a  bridge  for  the 
occasional  use  of  two  families,  even  if  they  are  rich.  It  is 
less  worth  while  to  go  to  much  pains  in  making  six  miles  of 
good  road  for  the  use  of  these  families.  A  school-house  will 
hardly  be  built  for  the  children  of  six  rich  men  who  will  all 
live  on  an  average  six  miles  away  from  it,  while  private  tutors 
or  governesses  can  be  paid  by  the  earnings  of  a  single  field- 
hand.  If  zeal  and  fluency  can  be  obtained  in  a  preacher 
coming  occasionally  within  reach,  the  interest  on  the  cost  of 
a  tolerable  education  is  not  likely  to  be  often  paid  by  all  who 
would  live  within  half  a  day's  journey  of  a  house  of  worship, 
which  can  be  built  anywhere  in  the  midst  of  a  district  of 
large  plantations.  It  is  not  necessary  to  multiply  illustrations 
like  these.  In  short,  then,  if  all  the  wealth  produced  in  a 
certain  district  is  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  a  few  men 
living  remote  from  each  other,  it  may  possibly  bring  to  the 


THE    PRESENT    CRISIS.  21 

district  comfortable  houses,  good  servants,  fine  wines,  food 
and  furniture,  tutors  and  governesses,  horses  and  carriages, 
for  these  few  men,  but  it  will  not  bring  thither  good  roads 
and  bridges,  it  will  not  bring  thither  such  means  of  education 
and  of  civilized  comfort  as  are  to  be  drawn  from  libraries, 
churches,  museums,  gardens,  theatres,  and  assembly  rooms ; 
it  will  not  bring  thither  local  newspapers,  telegraphs,  and  so 
on.  It  will  not  bring  thither  that  subtle  force  and  discipline 
which  comes  of  the  myriad  relations  with  and  duties  to  a 
well-constituted  community  which  every  member  of  it  is 
daily  exercising,  and  which  is  the  natural  unseen  compensation 
and  complement  of  its  more  obvious  constraints  and  incon- 
veniences. There  is,  in  fact,  a  vast  range  of  advantages  which 
our  civilization  has  made  so  common  to  us  that  they  are 
hardly  thought  of,  of  which  the  people  of  the  South  are 
destitute.  They  chiefly  come  from  or  connect  with  acts  of 
co-operation,  or  exchanges  of  service ;  they  are  therefore 
possessed  only  in  communities,  and  in  communities  where  a 
large  proportion  of  the  people  have  profitable  employment. 
They  grow,  in  fact,  out  of  employments  in  which  the  people  of 
the  community  are  associated,  or  which  they  constantly  give 
to  and  receive  from  one  another,  with  profit.  The  slaves  of 
the  South,  though  often  living  in  communities  upon  plan- 
tations, fail  to  give  or  receive  these  advantages  because  the 
profits  of  their  labour  are  not  distributed  to  them;  the 
whites,  from  not  engaging  in  profitable  employment.  The 
whites  are  not  engaged  in  profitable  employment,  because  the 
want  of  the  advantages  of  capital  in  the  application  of  their 
labour,  independently  of  the  already  rich,  renders  the  prospec- 
tive result  of  their  labour  so  small  that  it  is  inoperative  in 
most,  as  a  motive  for  exerting  themselves  further  than  is 
necessary  to  procure  the  bare  means  of  a  rude  subsistence  ; 
also  because  common  labour  is  so  poorly  rewarded  in  the  case 


22  CO1TON    AXD    SLAVERY. 

of  the  slaves  as  to  assume  in  their  minds,  as  it  must  in  the 
minds  of  the  slaves  themselves,  a  hateful  aspect. 

In  the  late  act  of  treason  of  the  usurpers  of  government  in 
Louisiana,  the. commercial  demand  which  induces  a  man  to  go 
to  work  is  considered  to  be  equivalent  to  slavery ;  and  the  fear 
that  the  election  of  Lincoln,  by  its  tendency  to  open  a  way 
for  the  emancipation  of  the  negroes,  may  lead  on  to  a  necessity 
for  the  whites  to  go  to  work,  is  gravely  set  forth  as  a  justi- 
fication for  the  surrender  of  the  State  to  the  conspiracy. 
Thus  :— 

".Fully  convinced  as  we  are  that  slavery  ***** 
leaves  to  the  black  labourer  a  more  considerable  sum  of 
comfort,  happiness,  and  liberty  than  the  inexorable  labour 
required  from  the  free  servants  of  the  whole  universe,  and 
that  each  emancipation  of  an  African,  without  being  of  any 
benefit  to  him,  would  necessarily  condemn  to  slavery  one  of 
our  own  race,  etc." 

To  work  industriously  and  steadily,  especially  Tinder  direc- 
tions from  another  man,  is,  in  the  Southern  tongue,  to  "  work 
like  a  nigger ;"  and,  from  childhood,  the  one  thing  in  their 
condition  which  has  made  life  valuable  to  the  mass  of  whites 
has  been  that  the  niggers  are  yet  their  inferiors.  It  is  this 
habit  of  considering  themselves  of  a  privileged  class,  and  of 
disdaining  something  which  they  think  beneath  them,  that  is 
deemed  to  be  the  chief  blessing  of  slavery.  It  is  termed  "  high 
tone,"  "  high  spirit,"  and  is  supposed  to  give  great  military 
advantages  to  those  who  possess  it.  It  should  give  advantages 
of  some  sort,  for  its  disadvantages  are  inexpressibly  great. 

But  if  the  poor  whites  were  ever  so  industriously  disposed, 
the  rich  planter  has  a  natural  distaste  to  exchange  absolute 
for  partial  authority  over  the  instruments  by  which  he 
achieves  his  purpose ;  and  the  employment  of  free  and  slave 
labour  together,  is  almost  as  difficult  as  working,  under  the 


. 

THE    PRESENT    CRISIS.  23 

same  yoke,  an  unbroken  horse  and  a  docile  ox.  Again,  how- 
ever repugnant  it  may  be  to  the  self-esteem,  and  contrary  to 
the  habits  of  the  rich  man  to  treat  his  labourers  with  respect, 
he  has  to  do  it  when  employing  white  men,  from  motives  of 
self-interest  which  lie  below  the  surface,  and  he  consequently 
habitually  avoids  arranging  his  affairs  in  such  a  way  as  will 
make  it  necessary  for  him  to  offer  them  employment. 

It  may  be  said  that  on  the  more  profitable  cotton  planta- 
tions, where  little  is  raised  except  cotton,  supplies  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  slaves,  and  for  carrying  on  the  work  of 
the  plantation,  are  largely  bought,  which  are  raised  elsewhere 
at  the  South ;  and  that  those  who  supply  the  commodities, 
thus  required  by  the  cotton-planter,  draw  from  his  profits 
which  are  thus  distributed  throughout  the  South,  even  to  the 
non-cotton-producing  States,  the  people  of  which  are  thus 
enriched.  As  far  as  all  articles  are  concerned,  in  the  pro- 
duction of  which  labour  is  a  comparatively  unimportant  item 
of  cost, — mules  for  instance,  and  in  certain  circumstances, 
within  certain  limits,  swine, — this  is  true.  But  these  are  of 
small  consequence.  It  is  constantly  assumed  by  nearly  all 
writers  on  this  subject,  that  the  labour  directed  to  the  culti- 
vation of  Indian  corn  for  the  necessary  sustenance  of  slaves 
engaged  in  cotton  culture,  must  be  just  as  profitably  directed 
as  if  it  were  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  cotton  itself.  This 
is  not  true,  although  the  Southern  agricultural  journals,  and 
to  a  large  extent  our  national  agriculture  reports,  have  for 
years  been  assuming  it  to  be  so.  It  is  frequently  spoken 
of,  indeed,  as  a  mystery,  that  the  cotton-planters  cannot  be 
induced  to  raise  the  food  required  by  their  force.  The  reason 
of  it  is  a  very  simple  one ;  namely,  that  in  the  cultivation  of 
corn  their  labour  must  come  into  competition  with  the  free 
labour  of  the  Northern  States,  as  it  does  not  in  the  production 
of  cotton :  and  the  corn-raisers  of  the  Northern  Slave  States, 


24  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

without  enjoying  any  monopoly  of  production,  like  that  of  the 
cotton-raisers,  have  to  share  with  these,  all  the  manifold 
inconveniences  which  result  from  the  scarcity  of  good  work- 
men, and  the  necessary  concentration  of  all  the  effective 
working  force  of  the  country,  limited  as  it  is,  upon  the  one 
purpose  of  getting  cotton. 

The  interests  of  the  owners  of  all  soil  in  the  Slave  States 
which  is  not  adapted  to  cotton  culture,  and  of  all  capital  not 
engaged  in  cotton  culture,  or  in  supplying  slaves  for  it,  are 
thus  injured  by  the  demand  for  cotton,  they  being,  in  fact, 
forced  to  be  co-partners  in  an  association  in  which  they  do  not 
share  the  profits. 

And  as  to  what  are  commonly  called  the  Cotton  States,  if 
we  assume  that  cotton  cultivation  is  profitable  only  where  the 
production  is  equal  to  two  bales  for  each  slave  employed,  it 
will  be  seen  that  wherever  the  land  will  not  yield  as  much  as 
this,  the  owner  of  it  suffers  all  the  disadvantages  of  the 
difficulty  of  getting  good  labourers  as  much  as  the  owner  of 
the  land  which  produces  seven  or  ten  bales  to  the  hand, 
although  none  of  the  profits  of  supplying  the  cotton  demand, 
which  gives  this  extraordinary  price  to  labour,  come  to  him. 

According  to  the  Census,*  the  whole  crop  of  cotton  is  pro- 
duced on  5,000,000  acres.  It  could  be  produced,  at  the 
rate  common  on  good  South-western  plantations,  on  less  than 
half  that  area.  The  rest  of  the  land  of  the  Slave  States, 
which  amounts  to  over  500,000,000  acres,  is  condemned,  so 
far  as  the  tendencies  I  have  indicated  are  not  overweighed 
here  and  there  by  some  special  advantages,  to  non-cultivation, 
except  for  the  hand-to-mouth  supply  of  its  people.  And  this 
is  true  not  only  of  its  agricultural  but  of  all  other  of  its 
resources. 

That  for  all  practical  purposes  this  is  not  an  exaggerated 

*  Compendium,  p.  176. 


THE   PRESENT    CRISIS.  25 

statement  is  clearly  enough  shown  by  the  difference  in  the 
market  value  of  land,  which  as  officially  given  by  De  Bow, 
is,  notwithstanding  the  extraordinary  demand  of  the  world 
upon  the  cotton  land,  between  four  and  five  hundred  per  cent, 
higher  in  the  Free  than  in  the  Slave  States,  the  frontier  and 
unsettled  districts,  Texas,  California,  and  the  territories  not 
being  considered. 

One  of  the  grand  errors,  out  of  which  this  rebellion  lias 
grown,  came  from  supposing  that  whatever  nourishes  wealth 
and  gives  power  to  an  ordinary  civilized  community,  must 
command  as  much  for  a  slave-holding  community.  The  truth 
has  been  overlooked  that  the  accumulation  of  wealth  and  the 
power  of  a  nation  are  contingent  not  merely  upon  the  primary 
value  of  the  surplus  of  productions  of  which  it  has  to  dispose, 
but  very  largely  also  upon  the  way  in  which  the  income  from 
its  surplus  is  distributed  and  reinvested.  Let  a  man  be  absent 
from  almost,  any  part  of  the  North  twenty  years,  and  he  is 
struck,  on  his  return,  by  what  we  call  the  "  improvements  " 
which  have  been  made.  Better  buildings,  churches,  school- 
houses,  mills,  railroads,  etc.  In  New  York  city  alone,  for 
instance,  at  least  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars  have  been 
reinvested  merely  in  an  improved  housing  of  the  people; 
in  labour-saving  machinery,  waterworks,  gasworks,  etc.,  as 
much  more.  It  is  not  difficult  to  see  where  the  profits 
of  our  manufacturers  and  merchants  are.  Again,  go  into 
the  country,  and  there  is  no  end  of  substantial  proof  of 
twenty  years'  of  agricultural  prosperity,  not  alone  in  roads, 
canals,  bridges,  dwellings,  barns  and  fences,  but  in  books  and 
furniture,  and  gardens,  and  pictures,  and  in  the  better  dress 
and  evidently  higher  education  of  the  people.  But  where  will 
the  returning  traveller  see  the  accumulated  cotton  profits  of 
twenty  years  in  Mississippi  ?  Ask  the  cotton-planter  for  them, 
and  he  will  point  in  reply,  not  to  dwellings,  libraries,  churches, 


26  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

school-houses,  mills,  railroads,  or  anything  of  the  kind ;  he 
will  point  to  his  negroes—  to  almost  nothing  else.  Negroes 
such  as  stood  for  five  hundred  dollars  once,  now  represent  a 
thousand  dollars.  We  must  look  then  in  Virginia  and  those 
Northern  Slave  States  which  have  the  monopoly  of  supplying 
negroes,  for  the  real  wealth  which  the  sale  of  cotton  has 
brought  to  the  South.  But  where  is  the  evidence  of  it  ? 
where  anything  to  compare  with  the  evidence  of  accumulated 
profits  to  be  seen  in  any  Free  State  ?  If  certain  portions  of 
Virginia  have  been  a  little  improving,  others  unquestionably 
have  been  deteriorating,  growing  shabbier,  more  comfortless, 
less  convenient.  The  total  increase  in  wealth  of  the  popula- 
tion during  the  last  twenty  years  shows  for  almost  nothing. 
One  year's  improvements  of  a  Free  State  exceed  it  all. 

It  is  obvious  that  to  the  community  at  large,  even  in 
Virginia,  the  profits  of  supplying  negroes  to  meet  the  wants 
occasioned  by  the  cotton  demand,  have  not  compensated  for  the 
bar  which  the  high  cost  of  all  sorts  of  human  service,  which  the 
cotton  demand  has  also  occasioned,  has  placed  upon  all  other 
means  of  accumulating  wealth  ;  and  this  disadvantage  of  the 
cotton  monopoly  is  fully  experienced  by  the  negro-breeders 
themselves,  in  respect  to  everything  else  they  have  to  pro- 
duce or  obtain.* 

I  say  all  sorts  of  human  service.  What  the  South  will 
have  to  pay  for  the  service  of  true  statesmanship,  the  world  has 
now  to  see. 

Whither  the  profits  of  cotton  go,  it  is  not  my  purpose, 
here,  to  undertake  to  show.  I  will  barely  notice  the  hypo- 
critical statement  made  for  the  English  market  as  an  apology 
for  this  mad  crime  of  the  slaveholders,  that  they  are  greatly 
absorbed  in  contributions  made  by  the  planting  States  to  our 
national  treasury  in  payment  of  duties  on  importations. 

*  Evidence  from  Virginian  witnesses  is  given  in  the  Appendix,  A. 


THE   PRESENT   CRISIS.  27 

The  cotton-planters  pay  duties  only  on  what  they  consume  of 
foreign  goods.  A  very  Large  part  of  all  our  duties  are  col- 
lected on  a  class  of  goods  for  which  there  is  almost  no  demand 
at  all  from  the  South,  either  directly  or  indirectly — woollen 
and  fur  goods,  for  instance :  of  the  goods  "required  for  the 
South  not  a  few  have  been  practically  free.  The  whole  slave 
population  of  the  South  consumes  almost  nothing  imported 
(nor  would  it,  while  slave,  under  any  circumstances) .  The 
majority  of  the  white  population  habitually  makes  use  of  no 
foreign  production  except  chickory,  which,  ground  with  peas, 
they  call  coffee.  I  have  never  seen  reason  to  believe  that 
with  absolute  free  trade  the  cotton  States  would  take  a  tenth 
part  of  the  value  of  our  present  importations.  And  as  far  as 
I  can  judge  from  observation  of  the  comparative  use  of  foreign 
goods  at  the  South  and  at  the  North,  not  a  tenth  part  of  our 
duties  have  been  defrayed  by  the  South  in  the  last  twenty 
years.  The  most  indefensible  protective  duty  we  have  is  one 
called  for  by  the  South,  and  which  has  been  maintained  solely 
to  benefit  the  South.  Our  protective  system  had  a  Southern 
origin  ;  its  most  powerful  advocates  have  been  Southerners  ; 
and  there  has  not  been  a  year  in  the  last  twenty,  in  which  it 
could  have  been  maintained  but  for  Southern  votes. 


28  COTTON   AND    SLAVEKY. 


CHAPTEK  II. 

WASHINGTON. 

Washington,  Dec.  LQth. — To  accomplish  the  purposes  which 
brought  me  to  Washington,  it  was  necessary,  on  arriving 
here,  to  make  arrangements  to  secure  food  and  shelter  while 
I  remained.  There  are  two  thousand  visitors  now  in  Wash- 
ington under  a  similar  necessity.  There  are  a  dozen  or  more 
persons  who,  for  a  consideration,  undertake  to  provide  what 
they  want.  Mr.  Dexter  is  reported  to  he  the  best  of  them, 
and  really  seems  a  very  obliging  and  honestly-disposed  per- 
son. To  Mr.  Dexter,  therefore,  I  commit  myself. 

I  commit  myself  by  inscribing  my  name  in  a  Kegister. 
Five  minutes  after  I  have  done  so,  Clerk  No.  4,  whose  atten- 
tion I  have  hitherto  been  unable  to  obtain,  suddenly  catches 
the  Eegister  by  the  corner,  swings  it  round  with  a  jerk,  and 
throws  a  hieroglyph  at  it,  which  strikes  near  my  name. 
Henceforth,  I  figure  as  Boarder  No.  201  (or  whatever  it 
may  be).  Clerk  No.  4  pipes  "  Boarder  away  !"  and  throws 
key  No.  201  upon  the  table.  Turnkey  No.  3  takes  it,  and 
me,  and  my  travelling  bag,  up  several  nights  of  stairs,  along 
corridors  and  galleries,  and  finally  consigns  me  to  this  little 
square  cell. 

I  have  faith  that  there  is  a  tight  roof  above  the  much- 
cracked  ceiling ;  that  the  bed  is  clean ;  and  that  I  shall,  by_ 
and-by,  be  summoned,  along  with  hundreds  of  other  boarders, 
to  partake,  in  silent  sobriety,  of  a  "  splendid  "  dinner. 


WASHINGTON.  29 

Food  and  shelter.  Therewith  should  a  man  be  content. 
But  my  perverse  nature  will  not  be  content :  will  be  wish- 
ing things  were  otherwise.  They  say  this  uneasiness — this 
passion  for  change — is  a  peculiarity  of  our  diseased  Northern 
nature.  The  Southern  man  finds  Providence  in  all  that  is  : 
Satan  in  all  that  might  be.  That  is  good ;  and,  as  I  am 
going  South,  when  I  have  accomplished  my  purposes  at 
Washington,  I  will  not  here  restrain  the  escape  of  my  present 
discontent. 

In  my  perversity  I  wish  the  dinner  were  not  going  to  be 
so  grand.  My  idea  is  that,  if  it  were  not,  Mr.  Dexter  would 
save  moneys,  which  I  would  like  to  have  him  expend  in  other 
ways.  I  wish  he  had  more  clerks,  so  that  they  would  have 
time  to  be  as  polite  to  an  unknown  man  as  I  see  they  are  to 
John  P.  Hale ;  and,  at  least,  answer  civil  questions,  when 
his  boarders  ask  them.  I  don't  like  such  a  fearful  rush  of 
business  as  there  is  down  stairs.  I  wish  there  were  men 
enough  to  do  the  work  quietly. 

I  don't  like  these  cracked  and  variegated  walls ;  and, 
though  the  roof  may  be  tight,  I  don't  like  this  threatening 
aspect  of  the  ceiling.  It  should  be  kept  for  boarders  of 
Damoclesian  ambition :  I  am  humble. 

I  am  humble,  and  I  am  short,  and  soon  curried ;  but  I  am 
not  satisfied  with  a  quarter  of  a  yard  of  towelling,  having  an 
irregular  vacancy  in  its  centre,  where  I  am  liable  to  insert 
my  head.  I  am  not  proud ;  but  I  had  rather  have  something 
else,  or  nothing,  than  these  three  yards  of  ragged  and  faded 
quarter-ply  carpeting.  I  also  would  like  a  curtain  to  the 
window,  and  I  wish  the  glass  were  not  so  dusty,  and  that  the 
sashes  did  not  rattle  so  in  their  casements ;  though,  as 
there  is  no  other  ventilation,  I  suppose  I  ought  not  to 
complain.  Of  course  not ;  but  it  is  confoundedly  cold,  as  well 
as  noisy.  . 


30  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

I  don't  like  that  broken  latch ;  I  don't  like  this  broken 
chair  ;  I  would  prefer  that  this  table  were  not  so  greasy  ;  I 
would  rather  the  ashes  and  cinders,  and  the  tobacco  juice 
around  the  grate,  had  been  removed  before  I  was  consigned 
to  the  cell. 

I  wish  that  less  of  my  two  dollars  and  a  half  a  day  went  to 
pay  for  game  at  dinner.,  and  interest  on  the  cost  of  the  mirrors 
and  mahogany  for  the  public  parlours,  and  of  marble  for  the 
halls,  and  more  of  it  for  providing  me  with  a  private  room, 
which  should  be  more  than  a  barely  habitable  cell,  which 
should  also  be  a  little  bit  tasteful,  home-like,  and  comfortable. 

I  wish  more  of  it  could  be  expended  in  servants'  wages. 

Six  times  I  rang  the  bell ;  three  several  times  came  three 
different  Irish  lads  ;  entered,  received  my  demand  for  a  fire, 
and  retired.  I  was  writing,  shiveringly,  a  full  hour  before 
the  fire-man  came.  Now  he  has  entered,  bearing  on  his  head 
a  hod  of  coal  and  kindling  wood,  without  knocking.  An  aged 
negro,  more  familiar  and  more  indifferent  to  forms  of  subser- 
viency than  the  Irish  lads,  very  much  bent,  seemingly  with 
infirmity ;  an  expression  of  impotent  anger  in  his  face,  and  a 
look  of  weakness,  like  a  drunkard's.  He  does  not  look  at 
me,  but  mutters  unintelligibly. 

"  What's  that  you  say  ?" 

"  Tink  I  can  make  a  hundred  fires  at  once  ?" 

"  I  don't  want  to  sit  an  hour  waiting  for  a  fire,  after  I  have 
ordered  one,  and  you  must  not  let  me  again." 

"  Nebber  let  de  old  nigger  have  no  ress — hundred  gemmen 
tink  I  kin  mak  dair  fires  all  de  same  minit ;  all  get  mad  at 
an  ole  nigger  ;  I  ain't  a  goin  to  stan  it — nebber  get  no  ress — 
up  all  night — haint  got  nautili  to  eat  nor  drink  dis  blessed 
mornin-— hundred  gemmen — ' ' 

"  That's  not  my  business ;  Mr.  Dexter  should  have  more 
servants  " 


WASHINGTON  31 

"  So  he  ort  ter,  master,  dat  he  had ;  one  ole  man  ain't 
enough  for  all  dis  house,  is  it,  master  ?  hundred  gemmen — " 

"  Stop — here's  a  quarter  for  you :  now  I  want  you  to 
look  out  that  I  have  a  good  fire,  and  keep  the  hearth  clean 
in  my  room  as  long  as  I  stay  hera  And  when  I  send 
for  you  I  want  you  to  come  immediately.  Do  you  under- 
stand?" 

"  I'le  try,  master — you  jus  look  roun  and  fine  me  when  you 
want  yer  fire ;  I'll  be  roun  somewhere.  You  got  a  news- 
paper, sir,  I  ken  take  for  a  minit  ?  I  won't  hurt  it." 

I  gave  him  one  ;  and  wondered  what  use  he  could  put  it  to, 
that  would  not  hurt  it.  He  opened  it  to  a  folio,  and  spread 
it  before  the  grate,  so  the  draft  held  it  in  place,  and  it  acted 
as  a  blower.  I  asked  if  there  were  no  blowers  ?  "  No." 
"But  haven't  you  got  any  brush  or  shovel?"!  inquired, 
seeing  him  get  down  upon  his  knees  again  and  sweep  the 
cinders  and  ashes  he  had  thrown  upon  the  floor  with  the 
sleeve  of  his  coat,  and  then  take  them  up  with  his  hands ; — 
No,  he  said,  his  master  did  not  give  him  such  things. 

"  Are  you  a  slave  ?" 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  Do  you  belong  to  Mr.  Dexter  ?" 

"  No,  sir — he  hires  me  of  de  man  dat  owns  me.  Don't  you 
tink  I'se  too  ole  a  man  for  to  be  knock  roun  at  dis  kind  of 
work,  massa  ? — hundred  gemmen  all  want  dair  fires  made  de 
same  minute,  and  cans  de  old  nigger  can't  do  it  all  de  same 
minute,  ebbery  one  tinks  dey's  boun  to  scold  him  all  de  tune ; 
nebber  no  rest  for  him,  no  time." 

Washington,  Dec.  1.4th. — I  called  to-day  on  Mr.  C.,  whose 
fine  farm,  from  its  vicinity  to  Washington,  and  its  excellent 
management,  as  well  as  from  the  hospitable  habits  of  its 
owner,  has  a  national  reputation.  It  is  some  two  thousand 


32  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

acres  in  extent,  and.  situated  just  without  the  District,  in 
Maryland. 

The  residence  is  in  the  midst  of  the  farm,  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  from  the  high  road — the  private  approach  being  judi- 
ciously carried  through  large  pastures  which  are  divided  only 
hy  slight,  but  close  and  well-secured  wire  fences.  The  kept 
grounds  are  limited,  and  in  simple  but  quiet  taste ;  being 
surrounded  only  by  wires,  they  merge,  in  effect,  into  the 
pastures.  There  is  a  fountain,  an  ornamental  dove-cote,  and 
ice-house,  and  the  approach  road,  nicely  gravelled  and  rolled, 
comes  up  to  the  door  with  a  fine  sweep. 

I  had  dismounted  and  was  standing  before  the  door,  when  I 
heard  myself  loudly  hailed  from  a  distance. 

"  Ef  yer  wants  to  see  master,  sah,  he's  down  thar  — to  the 
new  stable." 

I  could  see  no  one  ;  and  when  tired  of  holding  my  horse, 
I  mounted,  and- rode  on  in  search  of  the  new  stable.  I  found 
it  without  difficulty ;  and  in  it  Mr.  and  Mrs.  C.  With  them 
were  a  number  of  servants,  one  of  whom  now  took  my  horse 
with  alacrity.  I  was  taken  at  once  to  look  at  a  very  fine  herd 
of  cows,  and  afterwards  led  upon  a  tramp  over  the  farm,  and 
did  not  get  back  to  the  house  till  dinner-time. 

Mr.  C.  is  a  large  hereditary  owner  of  slaves,  which,  for 
ordinary  field  and  stable  work,  constitute  his  labouring  force. 
He  has  employed  several  Irishmen  for  ditching ;  and  for  this 
work,  and  this  alone,  he  thought  he  could  use  them  to  better 
advantage  than  negroes.  He  would  not  think  of  using 
Irishmen  for  common  farm-labour,  and  made  light  of  their 
coming  in  competition  with  slaves.  Negroes  at  hoeing  and 
any  steady  field-work,  he  assured  me,  would  "  do  two  to  their 
one ;"  but  his  main  objection  to  employing  Irishmen  was 
derived  from  his  experience  of  their  unfaithfuhiess — they  were 
uishonest,  would  not  obey  explicit  directions  about  their  work, 


WASHINGTON  33 

and  required  more  personal  supervision  than  negroes.  From 
what  he  had  heard  and  seen  of  Germans,  he  supposed  they 
did  better  than  Irish.  He  mentioned  that  there  were  several 
Germans  who  had  come  here  as  labouring  men,  and  worked 
for  wages  several  years,  who  had  now  got  possession  of  small 
farms,  and  were  reputed  to  be  getting  rich.*  He  was 
disinclined  to  converse  on  the  topic  of  slavery ;  and  I  there- 
fore made  no  inquiries  about  the  condition  and  habits  of  his 
negroes,  or  his  management  of  them.  They  seemed  to  live  in 
small  and  rude  log-cabins,  scattered  in  different  parts  of  the 
form.  Those  I  saw  at  work  appeared  to  me  to  move  very 
slowly  and  awkwardly,  as  did  also  those  engaged  in  the 
stable.  These  also  were  very  stupid  and  dilatory  in  exe- 
cuting any  orders  given  to  them,  so  that  Mr.  C.  would 
frequently  take  the  duty  off  their  hands  into  his  own,  rather 
than  wait  for  them,  or  make  them  correct  their  blunders : 
they  were  much,  in  these  respects,  like  what  our  farmers  call 
dumb  Paddies,  that  is,  Irishmen  who  do  not  readily  under- 
stand the  English  language,  and  who  are  still  weak  and  stiff 
from  the  effects  of  the  emigrating  voyage.  At  the  entrance- 
gate  was  a  porter's  lodge,  and  as  I  approached,  I  saw  a  black 
face  peeping  at  me  from  it,  but,  both  when  I  entered  and 
left,  I  was  oK  ged  to  dismount  and  open  the  gate  myself. 

Altogether  it  struck  me — slaves  coming  here  as  they 
naturally  did  in  direct  comparison  with  free  labourers,  as 
commonly  employed  on  my  own  and  my  neighbours'  farms,  in 

*  "  There  is  a  small  settlement  of  Germans,  about  three  miles  from  me,  who,  a 
few  years  since  (with  little  or  nothing  beyond  their  physical  abilities  to  aid  them), 
seated  themselves  down  in  a  poor,  miserable,  old  field,  and  have,  by  their  industry, 
and  means  obtained  by  working  round  among  the  neighbours,  effected  a  change 
which  is  really  surprising  and  pleasing  to  behold,  and  who  will,  I  have  no  doubt, 
become  wealthy,  provided  they  remain  prudent,  as  they  have  hitherto  been  indus- 
to-iou.-." — F.  A.  CLOPPER  (Montgomery  Co.),  Maryland,  in  Patent  Of.  Rept.,lH5J 
VOL.  I.  D 


34  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

exactly  similar  duties — that  they  must  be  difficult  to  direct 
efficiently,  and  that  it  must  be  irksome  and  trying  to  one's 
patience  to  have  to  superintend  their  labour. 

Washington,  Dee.  ~L6th. — Visiting  the  market-place,  early 
on  Tuesday  morning,  I  found  myself  in  the  midst  of  a  throng 
of  a  very  different  character  from  any  I  have  ever  seen  at  the 
North.  The  majority  of  the  people  were  negroes ;  and,  taken 
as  a  whole,  they  appeared  inferior  in  the  expression  of  their 
face  and  less  well-clothed  than  any  collection  of  negroes  I  had 
ever  seen  before.  All  the  negro  characteristics  were  more 
clearly  marked  in  each  than  they  often  are  in  any  at  the 
North.  In  their  dress,  language,  manner,  motions — all  were 
distinguishable  almost  as  much  by  their  colour,  from  the  white 
people  who  were  distributed  among  them,  and  engaged  in  the 
same  occupations — chiefly  selling  poultry,  vegetables,  and 
small  country  produce.  The  white  men  were,  generally,  a 
mean-looking  people,  and  but  meanly  dressed,  but  differently 
so  from  the  negroes. 

Most  of  the  produce  was  in  small,  rickety  carts,  drawn  by 
the  smallest,  ugliest,  leanest  lot  of  oxen  and  horses  that  I  ever 
saw.  There  was  but  one  pair  of  horses  in  over  a  hundred 
that  were  tolerably  good — a  remarkable  proportion  of  them 
were  maimed  in  some  way.  As  for  the  oxen,  I  do  not  believe 
New  England  and  New  York  together  could  produce  a  single 
yoke  as  poor  as  the  best  of  them. 

The  very  trifling  quantity  of  articles  brought  in  and  exposed 
for  sale  by  most  of  the  market-people  was  noticeable  ;  a  peck 
of  potatoes,  three  bunches  of  carrots,  two  cabbages,  six  eggs 
and  a  chicken,  would  be  about  the  average  stock  in  trade  of 
all  the  dealers.  Mr.  F.  said  that  an  old  nrgro  woman  once 
came  to  his  door  with  a  single  large  turkey,  vifrjch  she  pressed 


WASHINGTON.  35 

him  to  buy.  Struck  with  her  fatigued  appearance,  he  made 
some  inquiries  of  her,  and  ascertained  that  she  had  been 
several  days  coming  from  home,  had  travelled  mainly  on  foot, 
and  had  brought  the  turkey  and  nothing  else  with  her.  "  Ole 
massa  had  to  raise  some  money  somehow,  and  he  could  not 
sell  anyting  else,  so  he  tole  me  to  catch  the  big  gobbler,  and 
tote  urn  down  to  Washington  and  see  wot  um  would  fotch." 

Land  may  be  purchased,  within  twenty  miles  of  Washington, 
at  from  ten  to  twenty  dollars  an  acre.  Most  of  it  has  been 
once  in  cultivation,  and,  having  been  exhausted  in  raising 
tobacco,  has  been,  for  many  years,  abandoned,  and  is  now 
covered  by  a  forest  growth.  Several  New  Yorkers  have 
lately  speculated  in  the  purchase  of  this  sort  of  land,  and,  as 
there  is  a  good  market  for  wood,  and  the  soil,  by  the  decay 
of  leaves  upon  it,  and  other  natural  causes,  has  been  restored 
to  moderate  fertility,  have  made  money  by  clearing  and  im- 
proving it.  By  deep  ploughing  and  liming,  and  the  judicious 
use  of  manures,  it  is  made  quite  productive  ;  and,  as  equally 
cheap  farms  can  hardly  be  found  in  any  free  State,  in  such 
proximity  to  as  good  markets  for  agricultural  produce,  there 
are  inducements  for  a  considerable  Northern  immigration 
hither.  It  may  not  be  long  before  a  majority  of  the  inhabit- 
ants will  be  opposed  to  slavery,  and  desire  its  abolition  within 
the  district.  Indeed,  when  Mr.  Seward  proposed  in  the 
Senate  to  allow  them  to  decide  that  matter,  the  advocates  of 
"  popular  sovereignty  "  made  haste  to  vote  down  the  motion. 

There  are,  already,  more  Irish  and  German  labourers  and 
servants  than  slaves  ;  and,  as  many  of  the  objections  which 
free  labourers  have  to  going  further  south,  do  not  operate  in 
ington,  the  proportion  of  white  labourers  is  every  year 
increasing.  The  majority  of  servants,  however,  are  now  free 
negroes,  which  c^ass  constitutes  one-fifth  of  the  entire  popula- 

D  2 


36  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

tion.  The  slaves  are  one-fifteenth,  but  are  mostly  owned  out 
of  the  district,  and  hired  annually  to  those  who  require  their 
services.  In  the  assessment  of  taxable  property,  for  1853, 
the  skves,  owned  or  hired  in  the  district,  were  valued  at  three 
hundred  thousand  dollars. 

The  coloured  population  voluntarily  sustain  several  churches, 
schools,  and  mutual  assistance  and  improvement  societies,  and 
there  are  evidently  persons  among  them  of  no  inconsiderable 
cultivation  of  mind.  Among  the  police  reports  of  the  City 
newspapers,  there  was  lately  (April,  1855),  an  account  of  the 
apprehension  of  twenty-four  "  genteel  coloured  men "  (so 
they  were  described),  who  had  been  found  by  a  watchman 
assembling  privately  in  the  evening,  and  been  lodged  in  the 
watch-house.  The  object  of  their  meeting  appears  to  have 
been  purely  benevolent,  and,  when  they  were  examined  before 
a*  magistrate  in  the  morning,  no  evidence  was  offered,  nor 
does  there  seem  to  have  been  any  suspicion  that  they  had  any 
criminal  purpose.  On  searching  their  persons,  there  were 
found  a  Bible ;  a  volume  of  Seneca's  Morals  ;  Life  in  Ear- 
nest ;  the  printed  constitution  of  a  society,  the  object  of  which 
was  said  to  be  "  to  relieve  the  sick  and  Itury  the  dead  ;"  and 
a  subscription  paper  to  purchase  the  freedom  of  Eliza 
Howard,  a  young  woman,  whom  her  owner  was  willing  to 
sell  at  g  650. 

I  can  think  of  nothing  that  would  speak  higher  for  the 
character  of  a  body  of  poor  men,  servants  and  labourers,  than 
to  find,  by  chance,  in  their  pockets,  just  such  things  as  these. 
And  I  cannot  value  that  man  as  a  countryman,  who  does  not 
feel  intense  humiliation  and  indignation,  when  he  learns  that 
such  men  may  not  be  allowed  to  meet  privately  together,  with 
such  laudable  motives,  in  the  capital  city  of  the  United  States, 
without  being  subject  to  disgraceful  punishment.  One  of  the 


WASHINGTON.  37 

prisoners,  a  slave  named  Joseph  Jones,  was  ordered  to  be 
flogged  ;  four  others,  called  in  the  papers  free  men,  and  named 
John  E.  Bennett,  Chester  Taylor,  George  Lee,  and  Aquila 
Barton,  were  sent  to  the  workhouse ;  and  the  remainder,  on 
paying  costs  of  court,  and  fines,  amounting,  in  the  aggre- 
gate, to  one  hundred  and  eleven  dollars,  were  permitted  to 
range  loose  again. 


38  COTTON  AND   SLAVEBY. 


CHAPTEE  III. 

VTKGINTA. — GLIMPSES   BY   RAILED  AD. 

Richmond,  Dee.  I6th. — From  "Washington  to  Bichmond, 
Virginia,  by  the  regular  great  southern  route — steamboat  on 
the  Potomac  to  Acquia  Creek,  and  thence  direct  by  rail.  The 
boat  makes  55  miles  in  3f  hours,  including  two  stoppages 
(12£  miles  an  hour)  ;  fare  #2  (3 '6  cents  a  mile).  Flat  rail ; 
distance,  75  miles ;  time  5£  hours  (13  miles  an  hour)  ;  fare, 
$3  50  (4 1  cents  a  mile). 

Not  more  than  a  third  of  the  country,  visible  on  this  route, 
I  should  say,  is  cleared ;  the  rest  mainly  a  pine  forest.  Of 
the  cleared  land,  not  more  than  one  quarter  seems  to  have 
been  lately  in  cultivation  ;  the  rest  is  grown  over  with  briars 
and  bushes,  and  a  long,  coarse  grass  of  no  value.  But  two 
crops  seem  to  be  grown  upon  the  cultivated  land — maize  and 
wheat.  The  last  is  frequently  sown  in  narrow  beds  and 
carefully  surface-drained,  and  is  looking  remarkably  well. 

A  good  many  old  plantation  mansions  are  to  be  seen; 
generally  standing  in  a  grove  of  white  oaks,  upon  some  hill- 
top. Most  of  them  are  constructed  of  wood,  of  two  stories, 
painted  white,  and  have,  perhaps,  a  dozen  rude-looking  little 
log-cabins  scattered  around  them,  for  the  slaves.  Now  and 
then,  there  is  one  of  more  pretension,  with  a  large  porch  or 
gallery  in  front,  like  that  of  Mount  Vemon.  These  nre 
generally  in  a  heavy,  compact  style ;  less  often,  perhaps,  th;;n 


VIRGINIA.  39 

similar  establishments  at  the   North,   in  markedly  bad,  or 
vulgar  taste,  but  seem  in  sad  need  of  repairs. 

The  more  common  sort  of  habitations  of  the  white  people 
are  either  of  logs  or  loosely  boarded  frames,  a  brick  chimney 
running  up  outside,  at  one  end :  everything  very  slovenly  and 
dirty  about  them.  Swine,  hounds,  and  black  and  white 
children,  are  commonly  lying  very  promiscuously  together  on 
the  ground  about  the  doors. 

I  am  struck  with  the  close  cohabitation  and  association  of 
black  and  white — negro  women  are  carrying  bkck  and  white 
babies  together  in  their  arms  ;  black  and  white  children  are 
pLiying  together  (not  going  to  school  together)  ;  black  and 
white  faces  are  constantly  thrust  together  out  of  the  doors,  to 
see  the  train  go  by. 

A  fine-looking,  well-dressed,  and  well-behaved  coloured 
young  man  sat,  together  with  a  white  man,  on  a  seat  in  the 
cars.  I  suppose  the  man  was  his  master  ;  but  he  was  much 
the  less  like  a  gentleman  of  the  two.  The  railroad  company 
advertise  to  take  coloured  people  only  in  second-class  trains ; 
but  servants  seem  to  go  with  their  masters  everywhere.  Once, 
t  )-<liiy,  seeing  a  lady  entering  the  car  at  a  way-station,  with  a 
family  behind  her,  and  that  she  was  looking  about  to  find  a 
place  where  they  could  be  seated  together,  I  rose,  and  offered 
her  my  seat,  which  had  several  vacancies  round  it.  She 
accepted  it,  without  thanking  me,  and  immediately  installed 
in  it  a  stout  negro  woman ;  took  the  adjoining  seat  herself, 
and  seated  the  rest  of  her  party  before  her.  It  consisted  of 
a  white  girl,  probably  her  daughter,  and  a  bright  and 
very  pretty  mulatto  girl.  They  all  talked  and  laughed 
together ;  and  the  girls  munched  confectionary  out  of  the 
same  paper,  with  a  familiarity  and  closeness  of  intimacy  that 
would  have  been  noticed  with  astonishment,  if  not  with  mani- 
fest displeasure,  in  almost  any  chance  compjuiv  nt  tlio  North 


40  COTTON   AND   SLAVEBY. 

When  the  negro  is  definitely  a  slave,  it  would  seem  that  the 
alleged  natural  antipathy  of  the  white  race  to  associate  with 
him  is  lost. 

I  am  surprised  at  the  number  of  fine-looking  niulattoes,  or 
nearly  white-coloured  persons,  that  I  see.  The  majority  of 
those  with  whom  I  have  come  personally  in  contact  are  such. 
I  fancy  I  see  a  peculiar  expression  among  these — a  contrac- 
tion of  the  eyehrows  and  tightening  of  the  lips — a  spying, 
secretive,  and  counsel-keeping  expression. 

But  the  great  mass,  as  they  are  seen  at  work,  under  over- 
s,  in  the  fields,  appear  very  dull,  idiotic,  and  brute-like ; 
and  it  requires  an  effort  to  appreciate  that  they  are,  very  much 
more  than  the  beasts  they  drive,  our  brethren — a  part  of  our- 
selves.  They  are  very  ragged,  and  the  women  especially, 
who  work  in  the  field  with  the  men,  with  no  apparent  distinc- 
tion in  their  labour,  disgustingly  dirty.  They  seem  to  move 
very  awkwardly,  slowly,  and  undecidedly,  and  almost  invari- 
ably stop  their  work  while  the  train  is  passing. 

One  tannery  and  two  or  three  saw-mills  afforded  the  only 
indications  I  saw,  in  seventy-five  miles  of  this  old  country — 
settled  before  any  part  of  Massachusetts — of  any  industrial 
occupation  other  than  corn  and  wheat  culture,  and  fire-wood 
chopping.  At  Fredericksburg  we  passed  through  the  streets 
of  a  rather  busy,  poorly-built  town ;  but  altogether,  the 
country  seen  from  the  railroad,  bore  less  signs  of  an  active 
and  prospering  people  than  any  I  ever  travelled  through  before, 
for  an  equal  distance. 

Eichmond,  at  a  glance  from  adjacent  high  ground,  through 
a  dull  cloud  of  bituminous  smoke,  upon  a  lowering  winter's 
day,  has  a  very  picturesque  appearance,  and  I  was  reminded 
of  the  sensation  produced  by  a  similar  coup  d'ceilof  Edinburgh. 
It  is  somewhat  similarly  situated  upon  and  among  some  con- 
siderable hills;  but  the  moment  it  is  examined  at  all  in 


VIRGINIA.  41 

detail,  there  is  but  one  spot,  in  the  whole  picture,  upon  which 
the  eye  is  at  all  attracted  to  rest.  This  is  the  Capitol,  a  Grecian 
edifice,  standing  alone,  and  finely  placed  on  open  and  elevated 
ground,  in  the  centre  of  the  tdwn.  It  was  built  soon  after  the 
Revolution,  and  the  model  was  obtained  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  then 
Minister  to  France,  from  the  Maison  Carree. 

A  considerable  part  of  the  town,  which  contains  a  population 
of  28,000,  is  compactly  and  somewhat  substantially  built,  but  is 
without  any  pretensions  to  architectural  merit,  except  in  a  few 
modern  private  mansions.  The  streets  are  not  paved,  and  but 
few  of  them  are  provided  with  side  walks  other  than  of  earth 
or  gravel.  The  town  is  lighted  with  gas,  and  furnished  with 
excellent  water  by  an  aqueduct. 

On  a  closer  view  of  the  Capitol,  a  bold  deviation  from  the 
Grecian  model  is  very  noticeable.  The  southern  portico  is 
sustained  upon  a  very  high  blank  wall,  and  is  as  inaccessible 
from  the  exterior  as  if  it  had  been  intended  to  fortify  the  edifice 
from  all  ingress  other  than  by  scaling-ladders.  On  coming 
round  to  the  west  side,  however,  which  is  without  a  colonnade, 
a  grand  entrance,  reached  by  a  heavy  buttress  of  stone  steps, 
is  found.  This  incongruity  diminishes,  in  some  degree,  the 
usual  inconvenience  of  the  Greek  temple  for  modern  public 
purposes,  for  it  gives  speedy  access  to  a  small  central  rotunda, 
out  of  which  doors  open  into  the  legislative  halls  and  offices. 

If  the  walling  up  of  the  legitimate  entrance  has  caused  the 
impression,  in  a  stranger,  that  he  is  being  led  to  a  prison  or 
fortress,  instead  of  the  place  for  transacting  the  public  business 
of  a  Free  State  by  its  chosen  paid  agents,  it  is  not  removed  when 
on  approaching  this  side  door,  he  sees  before  it  an  armed 
sentinel — a  meek-looking  man  in  a  livery  of  many  colours, 
embarrassed  with  a  bright-bayoneted  firelock,  which  he  hugs 
gently,  as  though  the  cold  iron,  this  frosty  day,  chilled  his  arm. 

He  belongs  to  the  Public  Guard  of  Virginia,  I  am  told ;  a 


42  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

company  of  a  hundred  men  (more  or  less),  enlisted  under  an 
Act  of  the  State,  passed  in  1801,  after  a  rebellion  of  the 
coloured  people,  who,  under  one  "  General  Gabriel,"  attempted 
to  take  the  town,  in  hopes  to  gain  the  means  of  securing 
their  freedom.  Having  been  betrayed  by  a  traitor,  as  in- 
surgent slaves  almost  always  are,'  they  were  met,  on  their 
approach,  by  a  large  body  of  well-armed  militia,  hastily  called 
out  by  the  Governor.  For  this,  being  armed  only  with  scythe- 
blades,  they  were  unprepared,  and  immediately  dispersed. 
"  General  Gabriel "  and  the  other  leaders,  one  after  another, 
were  captured,  tried,  and  hanged,  the  militia  in  strong  force 
guarding  them  to  execution.  Since  then,  a  disciplined  guard, 
bearing  the  warning  motto,  "Sic  semper  tyrannis !"  has 
been  kept  constantly  under  arms  in  the  Capitol,  and  no  man 
can  enter  the  legislative  temple  of  Virginia  without  being 
reminded  that  "Eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of ." 

It  was  not  till  I  had  passed  the  guard,  unchallenged,  and 
stood  at  the  door-way,  that  I  perceived  that  the  imposing 
edifice,  as  I  had  thought  it  at  a  distance,  was  nothing  but  a 
cheap  stuccoed  building ;  nor  would  anything  short  of  test  by 
touch  have  convinced  me  that  the  great  State  of  Yirginia 
would  have  been  so  long  content  with  such  a  parsimonious 
pretence  of  dignity  as  is  found  in  imitation  granite  and  imita- 
tion marble. 

There  is  an  instance  of  parsimony,  without  pretence,  in 
Eichmond,  which  Euskin  himself,  if  he  were  a  traveller, 
could  not  be  expected  to  applaud.  The  railroad  company 
which  brings  the  traveller  from  Washington,  so  far  from  being 
open  to  the  criticism  of  having  provided  edifices  of  a  style  of 
architecture  only  fitted  for  palaces,  instead  of  a  hall  suited  to 
conflicts  with  hackney-coachmen,  actually  has  no  sort  of 
stationary  accommodations  for  them  at  all,  but  sets  them  down, 
rain  or  shine,  in  the  middle  of  one  of  the  main  streets.  The 


VIRGINIA.  43 

adjoining  hucksteries,  barbers'  shops,  and  bar-rooms,  are  evi- 
dently all  the  better  patronized  for  this  fine  simplicity ;  but  I 
should  doubt  if  the  railroad  stock  advanced  in  value  by  it. 

Richmond. — On  a  Sunday  afternoon  I  met  a  negro  funeral 
procession,  and  followed  after  it  to  the  place  of  burial.  There 
was  a  decent  hearse,  of  the  usual  style,  drawn  by  two  horses  ; 
six  hackney  coaches  followed  it,  and  six  well-dressed  men, 
mounted  on  handsome  saddle-horses,  and  riding  them  well, 
rode  in  the  rear  of  these.  Twenty  or  thirty  men  and  women 
were  also  walking  together  with  the  procession,  on  the  side 
walk.  Among  all  there  was  not  a  white  person. 

Passing  out  into  the  country,  a  little  beyond  the  principal 
cemetery  of  the  city  (a  neat,  rural  ground,  well  filled  with 
monuments  and  evergreens),  the  hearse  halted  at  a  desolate 
place,  where  a  dozen  coloured  people  were  already  engaged 
heaping  the  earth  over  the  grave  of  a  child,  and  singing  a 
wild  kind  of  chant.  Another  grave  was  already  dug  imme- 
diately adjoining  that  of  the  child,  both  being  near  the  foot  of 
a  hill,  in  a  crumbling  bank — the  ground  below  being  already 
occupied,  and  the  graves  advancing  in  irregular  terraces  up 
the  hill-side — an  arrangement  which  facilitated  labour. 

The  new  comers,  setting  the  coffin — which  was  neatly 
made  of  stained  pine — upon  the  ground,  joined  in  the  labour 
and  the  singing,  with  the  preceding  party,  until  a  small 
mound  of  earth  was  made  over  the  grave  of  the  child.  "When 
this  was  completed,  one  of  those  who  had  been  handling  a 
spade,  sighed  deeply  and  said — 

"  Lord  Jesus,  have  marcy  on  us — now  !  you  Jim — you !  see 
yar  !  you  jes  lay  dat  yar  shovel  cross  dat  grave — so  fash — 
dah — yes,  dat's  right." 

A  shovel  and  a  hoe-handle  having  been  laid  across  the 
unfilled  grave,  the  coffin  was  brought  and  laid  upon  them,  a 


44  COTTON    AXD    SLAVERY. 

on  a  trestle;  after  which,  lines  were  passed  under  it,  by 
which  it  was  lowered  to  the  bottom. 

Most  of  the  company  were  of  a  very  poor  appearance,  rude 
and  unintelligent,  but  there  were  several  neatly-dressed  and 
very  good-looking  men.  One  of  these  now  stepped  to  the 
head  of  the  grave,  and,  after  a  few  sentences  of  prayer,  held  a 
handkerchief  before  him  as  if  it  were  a  book,  and  pronounced 
a  short  exhortation,  as  if  he  were  reading  from  it.  His 
manner  was  earnest,  and  the  tone  of  his  voice  solemn  and 
impressive,  except  that,  occasionally,  it  would  break  into  a 
shout  or  kind  of  howl  at  the  close  of  a  long  sentence.  I 
noticed  several  women  near  him,  weeping,  and  one  sobbing 
intensely.  I  was  deeply  influenced  myself  by  the  unaffected 
feeling,  in  connection  with  the  simplicity,  natural,  rude  truth- 
fulness, and  absence  of  all  attempt  at  formal  decorum  in  the 
crowd. 

I  never  in  my  life,  however,  heard  such  ludicrous  language 
as  was  sometimes  uttered  by  the  speaker.  Frequently  I  could 
not  guess  the  idea  he  was  intending  to  express.  Sometimes 
it  was  evident  that  he  was  trying  to  repeat  phrases  that  he 
had  heard  used  before,  on  similar  occasions,  but  which  he 
made  absurd  by  some  interpolation  or  distortion  of  a  word, 
thus :  "  We  do  not  see  the  end  here !  oh  no,  my  friends ! 
there  will  be  a  purification  of  this  body  !"  the  context  failing 
to  indicate  whether  he  meant  purification  or  putrefaction,  and 
leaving  it  doubtful  if  he  attached  any  definite  meaning  to  the 
word  himself.  He  quoted  from  the  Bible  several  times, 
several  times  from  hymns,  always  introducing  the  latter  with 
"  In  the  words  of  the  poet,  my  brethren ;"  he  once  used  the 
same  form,  before  a  verse  from  the  New  Testament,  and  once 
qualified  his  citation  by  saying,  "  I  believe  the  Bible  says  that." 

He  concluded  by  throwing  a  handful  of  earth  on  the  coffin, 
repeating  the  usual  words,  slightly  disarranged,  and  then  took 


VIRGINIA.  45 

a  shovel,  and,  with  the  aid  of  six  or  seven  others,  proceeded 
very  rapidly  to  fill  the  grave.  Another  man  had  in  the  mean 
time,  stepped  into  the  place  he  had  first  occupied  at  the  head 
of  the  grave ;  an  old  negro,  with  a  very  singularly  distorted 
face,  who  raised  a  hymn,  which  soon  became  a  confused  chant 
— the  leader  singing  a  few  words  alone,  and  the  company 
then  either  repeating  them  after  him  or  making  a  response  to 
them,  in  the  manner  of  sailors  heaving  at  the  windlass.  I 
could  understand  hut  very  few  of  the  words.  The  music  was 
wild  and  barbarous,  but  not  without  a  plaintive  melody.  A 
new  leader  took  the  place  of  the  old  man,  when  his  breath 
gave  out  (he  had  sung  very  hard,  with  much  bending  of  the 
body  and  gesticulation),  and  continued  until  the  grave  was 
filled,  and  a  mound  raised  over  it. 

A  man  had,  in  the  mean  time,  gone  into  a  ravine  near 
by,  and  now  returned  with  two  small  branches,  hung  with 
withered  leaves,  that  he  had  broken  off  a  beech  tree :  these 
were  placed  upright,  one  at  the  head,  the(  other  at  the  foot 
of  the  grave.  A  few  sentences  of  prayer  were  then  repeated 
in  a  low  voice  by  one  of  the  company,  and  all  dispersed.  No 
one  seemed  to  notice  my  presence  at  all.  There  were  about 
fifty  coloured  people  in  the  assembly,  and  but  one  other  white 
man  besides  myself.  This  man  lounged  against  the  fence, 
outside  the  crowd,  an  apparently  indifferent  spectator,  and  I 
judged  he  was  a  police  officer,  or  some  one  procured  to  witness 
the  funeral,  in  compliance  with  the  law  which  requires  that  a 
white  man  shall  always  be  present  at  any  meeting,  for  reli- 
gious exercises,  of  the  negroes. 

The  greater  part  of  the  coloured  people,  on  Sunday,  seemed 
to  be  dressed  in  the  cast-off  fine  clothes  of  the  white  people, 
received,  I  suppose,  as  presents,  or  purchased  of  the  Jews, 
whose  shops  show  that  there  must  be  considerable  importation 
of  such  articles,  probably  from  the  North,  as  there  is  from 


46  COTXON    AND    SLAVERY. 

England  into  Ireland.  Indeed,  the  lowest  class,  especially 
among  the  younger,  remind  me  much,  by  their  dress,  of  the 
"  lads "  of  Donnybrook ;  and  when  the  funeral  procession 
came  to  its  destination,  there  was  a  scene  precisely  like  that 
you  may  see  every  day  in  Sackville  Street,  Dublin, — a  dozen 
boys  in  ragged  clothes,  originally  made  for  tall  men,  and 
rather  folded  round  their  bodies  than  worn,  striving  who 
should  hold  the  horses  of  the  gentlemen  when  they  dismounted 
to  attend  the  interment  of  the  body.  Many,  who  had  probably 
come  in  from  the  farms  near  the  town,  wore  clothing  of  coarse 
gray  "negro-cloth,"  that  appeared  as  if  made  by  contract, 
without  regard  to  the  size  of  the  particular  individual  to  whom 
it  had  been  allotted,  like  penitentiary  uniforms.  A  few  had  a 
better  suit  of  coarse  blue  cloth,  expressly  made  for  them 
evidently,  for  "  Sunday  clothes." 

Some  were  dressed  with  foppish  extravagance,  and  many 
in  the  latest  style  of  fashion.  In  what  I  suppose  to  be  the 
fashionable  streets,  there  were  many  more  well-dressed  and 
highly-dressed  coloured  people  than  white ;  and  among  this 
dark  gentry  the  finest  French  cloths,  embroidered  waistcoats, 
patent-leather  shoes,  resplendent  brooches,  silk  hats,  kid 
gloves,  and  eau  de  mille  fleurs,  were  quite  common.  Nor 
was  the  fairer,  or  rather  the  softer  sex,  at  all  left  in  the  shade 
of  this  splendour.  Many  of  the  coloured  ladies  were  dressed 
not'  only  expensively,  but  with  good  taste  and  effect,  after  the 
latest  Parisian  mode.  Some  of  them  were  very  attractive  in 
appearance,  and  would  have  produced  a  decided  sensation  in 
any  European  drawing-room.  Their  walk  and  carriage  were 
more  often  stylish  and  graceful.  Nearly  a  fourth  part  seemed 
to  me  to  have  lost  all  African  peculiarity  of  feature,  and  to 
have  acquired,  in  place  of  it,  a  good  deal  of  that  voluptuous- 
ness of  expression  which  characterizes  many  of  the  women  of 
the  South  of  Europe. 


VIRGINIA.  47 

There  was  no  indication  of  their  belonging  to  a  subject  race, 
except  that  they  invariably  gave  the  way  to  the  white  people 
they  met.  Once,  when  two  of  them,  engaged  in  conversation 
and  looking  at  each  other,  had  not  noticed  his  approach,  I  saw 
a  Virginian  gentleman  lif  t  his  walking-stick  and  push  a  woman 
aside  with  it.  In  the  evening  I  saw  three  rowdies,  arm-in- 
arm,  taking  the  whole  of  the  sidewalk,  hustle  a  black  man  off 
it,  giving  him  a  blow,  as  they  passed,  that  sent  him  staggering 
into  the  middle  of  the  street.  As  he  recovered  himself  he 
began  to  call  out  to,  and  threaten  them.  Perhaps  he  saw  me 
stop,  and  thought  I  should  support  him,  as  I  was  certainly 
inclined  to :  "  Can't  you  find  anything  else  to  do  than  to  be 
knockin'  quiet  people  round !  You  jus'  come  back  here,  will 
you  ?  Here,  you  !  don't  care  if  you  is  white.  You  jus'  come 
back  here,  and  I'll  teach  you  how  to  behave — knockin'  people 
round ! — don't  care  if  I  does  hab  to  go  to  der  watch-house." 
They  passed  on  without  noticing  him  further,  only  laughing 
jeeringly — and  he  continued  :  "  You  come  back  here,  and  I'll 
make  you  laugh  ;  you  is  jus'  three  white  nigger  cowards,  dat's 
what  you  be." 

I  observe,  in  the  newspapers,  complaints  of  growing  inso- 
lence and  insubordination  among  the  negroes,  arising,  it  is 
thought,  from  too  many  privileges  being  permitted  them  by 
their  masters,  and  from  too  merciful  administration  of  the 
police  laws  with  regard  to  them.  Except  in  this  instance, 
however,  I  have  seen  not  the  slightest  evidence  of  any  inde- 
pendent manliness  on  the  part  of  the  negroes  towards  the 
whites.  As  far  as  I  have  yet  observed,  they  are  treated 
very  kindly  and  even  generously  as  servants,  but  their 
manner  to  white  people  is  invariably  either  sullen,  jocose,  or 
fawning. 

The  pronunciation  and  dialect  of  the  negroes,  here,  is  gene- 
rally much  more  idiomatic  and  peculiar  than  with  us.  As  I 


48  COTTON    AND    SLAVEltY. 

write,  I  hear  a  man  shouting,  slowly  and  deliberately,  meaning 
to  say  there :  "  Dali !  dah  !  DAH  !" 

Among  the  people  you  see  in  the  streets,  full  half,  I  should 
think,  are  more  or  less  of  negro  blood,  and  a  very  decent,  civil 
people  these  seem,  in  general,  to  be ;  more  so  than  the 
labouring  class  of  whites,  among  which  there  are  many  very 
ruffianly-looking  fellows.  There  is  a  considerable  population 
of  foreign  origin,  generally  of  the  least  valuable  class ;  very 
dirty  German  Jews,  especially,  abound,  and  their  character- 
istic shops  (with  their  characteristic  smells,  quite  as  bad  as  in 
Cologne)  are  thickly  set  in  the  narrowest  and  meanest  streets, 
which  seem  to  be  otherwise  inhabited  mainly  by  negroes. 

Immense  waggons,  drawn  by  six  mules  each,  the  teamster 
always  riding  on  the  back  of  the  near- wheeler,  are  a  character- 
istic feature  of  the  streets.  On  the  canal,  a  long,  narrow- 
canoe-like  boat,  perhaps  fifty  feet  long  and  six  wide,  and 
drawing  but  a  foot  or  two  of  water,  is  nearly  as  common  as 
the  ordinary  large  boats,  such  as  are  used  on  our  canals. 
They  come  out  of  some  of  the  small,  narrow,  crooked  streams, 
connected  with  the  canals,  in  which  a  difficult  navigation  is 
effected  by  poleing.  They  are  loaded  with  tobacco,  flour,  and 
a  great  variety  of  raw  country  produce.  The  canal  boatmen 
seem  rude,  insolent,  and  riotous,  and  every  facility  is  evidently 
afforded  them,  at  Richmond,  for  indulging  their  peculiar 
appetites  and  tastes.  A  great  many  low  eating,  and,  I  should 
think,  drinking,  shops  are  frequented  chiefly  by  the  negroes. 
Dancing  and  other  amusements  are  carried  on  in  these  at 
night. 

From  reading  the  comments  of  Southern  statesmen  and 
newspapers  on  the  crime  and  misery  which  sometimes  result 
from  the  accumulation  of  poor  and  ignorant  people,  with  no 
intelligent  masters  to  take  care  of  them,  in  our  Northern 
towns,  one  might  get  the  impression  that  Southern  towns — • 


VIRGINIA.  49 

especially  those  not  demoralized  by  foreign  commerce — were 
comparatively  free  from  a  low  and  licentious  population. 
From  what  I  have  seen,  however,  I  am  led  to  think  that 
there  is  at  least  as  much  vice,  and  of  what  we  call  rowdyism, 
in  Kichmond,  as  in  any  Northern  town  of  its  size. 

Richmond. — Yesterday  morning,  during  a  cold,  sleety 
storm,  against  which  I  was  struggling,  with  my  umbrella,  to 
the  post-office,  I  met  a  comfortably-dressed  negro  leading 
three  others  by  a  rope ;  the  first  was  a  middle-aged  man ; 
the  second  a  girl  of,  perhaps,  twenty ;  and  the  last  a  boy, 
considerably  younger.  The  arms  of  all  three  were  secured 
before  them  with  hand-cuffs,  and  the  rope  by  which  they 
were  led  passed  from  one  to  another ;  being  made  fast  at 
each  pair  of  hand-cuffs.  They  were  thinly  clad,  the  girl 
especially  so,  having  only  an  old  ragged  handkerchief  around 
her  neck,  over  a  common  calico  dress,  and  another  handker- 
chief twisted  around  her  head.  They  were  dripping  wet, 
and  icicles  were  forming,  at  the  time,  on  the  awning  bars. 

The  boy  looked  most  dolefully,  and  the  girl  was  turning 
around,  with  a  very  angry  face,  and  shouting,  "  0  pshaw ! 
Shut  up !" 

"  What  are  they  ?"  said  I,  to  a  white  man,  who  had  also 
stopped,  for  a  moment,  to  look  at  them.  "  What's  he  going 
to  do  with  them  ?" 

"  Come  in  a  canal  boat,  I  reckon :  sent  down  here  to  be 
sold. — That  ar's  a  likely  gal." 

Our  ways  lay  together,  and  I  asked  further  explanation. 
He  informed  me  that  the  negro-dealers  had  confidential  ser- 
vants always  in  attendance,  on  the  arrival  of  the  railroad 
trains  and  canal  packets,  to  take  any  negroes  that  might 
have  come  consigned  to  them,  and  bring  them  to  their  marts. 

Nearly  opposite  the  post-office  was  another  singular  group 

VOL.  I.  K 


50  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

of  negroes.  They  consisted  of  men  and  boys,  and  each  carried 
a  coarse,  white  blanket,  drawn  together  at  the  corners  so  as 
to  hold  some  articles ;  probably,  extra  clothes.  They  stood  in 
a  row,  in  lounging  attitudes,  and  some  of  them,  again,  were 
quarrelling,  or  reproving  one  another.  A  villanous-looking 
white  man  stood  in  front  of  them.  Presently,  a  stout,  re- 
spectable man,  dressed  in  black  according  to  the  custom,  and 
without  any  overcoat  or  umbrella,  but  with  a  large,  golden- 
headed  walking-stick,  came  out  of  the  door  of  an  office,  and, 
without  saying  a  word,  walked  briskly  up  the  street ;  the 
negroes  immediately  followed,  in  file ;  the  other  white  man 
bringing  up  the  rear.  They  were  slaves  that  had  been  sent 
into  the  town  to  be  hired  out  as  servants  or  factory  hands. 
The  gentleman  in  black  was,  probably,  the  broker  in  the 
business. 

Near  the  post-office,  opposite  a  large  livery  and  sale  stable, 
I  turned  into  a  short,  broad  street,  in  which  were  a  number  of 
establishments,  the  signs  on  which  .indicated  that  they  were 
occupied  by  "  Slave  Dealers,"  and  that  "  Slaves,  for  Sale  or  to 
Hire,"  were  to  be  found  within  them.  They  were  much  like 
Intelligence  Offices,  being  large  rooms  partly  occupied  by 
ranges  of  forms,  on  which  sat  a  few  comfortably  and  neatly 
clad  negroes,  who  appeared  perfectly  cheerful,  each  grinning 
obsequiously,  but  with  a  manifest  interest  or  anxiety,  when 
I  fixed  my  eye  on  them  for  a  moment. 

In  Chambers'  Journal  for  October,  1853,*  there  is  an  ac- 
count of  the  Richmond  slave  marts,  and  the  manner  of  con- 
ducting business  in  them,  to  which  I  shall  refer  the  reader, 
in  lieu  of  any  further  narration  of  my  own  observations  on 
this  subject.  (See  Appendix  B.)  I  did  not  myself  happen 

*  William  Chambers  has  published  the  article  in  a  separate  form,  with  some 
others,  under  the  title  of  '  American  Slavery  and  Colours.'  Mr.  Russell,  of  the 
Times,  has  given  a  later  case  at  Montgomery. 


VIRGINIA.  51 

to  witness,  during  fourteen  months  that  I  spent  in  the  Slave 
States,  any  sale  of  negroes  by  auction.  This  must  not  be 
taken  as  an  indication  that  negro  auctions  are  not  of  frequent 
occurrence  (I  did  not,  so  far  as  I  now  recollect,  witness  the 
sale  of  anything  else,  at  auction,  at  the  South).  I  saw 
negroes  advertised  to  be  sold  at  auction,  very  frequently. 

The  hotel  at  which  I  am  staying,  "  The  American,"  Mil- 
berger  Smith,  from  New  York,  proprietor,  is  an  excellent  one. 
I  have  never,  this  side  the  Atlantic,  had  my  comforts  provided 
for  better,  in  my  private  room,  with  so  little  annoyance  from 
the  servants.  The  chamber-servants  are  negroes,  and  are 
accomplished  in  their  business ;  (the  dining-room  servants  are 
Irish).  A  man  and  a  woman  attend  together  upon  a  few 
assigned  rooms,  in  the  hall  adjoining  which  they  are  con- 
stantly in  waiting  ;  your  bell  is  answered  immediately,  your 
orders  are  quickly  and  quietly  followed,  and  your  particular 
personal  wants  anticipated  as  much  as  possible,  and  provided 
for,  as  well  as  the  usual  offices  performed,  when  you  are  out. 
The  .man  becomes  your  servant  while  you  are  in  your  room ; 
he  asks,  at  night,  when  he  comes  to  request  your  boots,  at 
what  time  he  shall  come  in  the  morning,  and  then,  without 
being  very  exactly  punctual,  he  comes  quietly  in,  makes  your 
fire,  sets  the  boots  before  it,  brushes  and  arranges  your  clothes, 
lays  out  your  linen,  arranges  your  dressing  gear,  asks  if  you 
want  anything  else  of  him  before  breakfast,  opens  the  shutters, 
and  goes  off  to  the  next  room.  I  took  occasion  to  speak  well 
of  him  to  my  neighbour  one  day,  that  I  might  judge  whether 
I  was  particularly  favoured. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  he  said,  "  Henry  was  a  very  good  boy,  very — 
valuable  servant — quite  so — would  be  worth  two  thousand 
dollars,  if  he  was  a  little  younger — easy." 

At  dinner,  a  venerable  looking  man  asked  another — 

"  Niggers  are  going  high  now,  aint  they  ?" 

E  2 


52  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  What  would  you  consider  a  fair  price  for  a  woman  thirty 
years  old,  with  a  young-one  two  years  old  ?" 

"  Depends  altogether  on  her  physical  condition,  you  know. 
— Has  she  any  other  children  ?" 

"Yes;  four." 

" Well — I  reckon  about  seven  to  eight  hundred." 

"  I  bought  one  yesterday — gave  six  hundred  and  fifty." 

"  "Well,  sir,  if  she's  tolerable  likely,  you  did  well." 

This  morning  I  visited  a  farm,  situated  on  the  bank  of 
James  River,  near  Richmond. 

The  labour  upon  it  was  entirely  performed  by  slaves.  I 
did  not  inquire  their  number,  but  I  judged  there  were  from 
twenty  to  forty.  Their  "  quarters  "  lined  the  approach-road 
to  the  mansion,  and  were  well-made  and  comfortable  log 
cabins,  about  thirty  feet  long  by  twenty  wide,  and  eight  feet 
wall,  with  a  high  loft  and  shingle  roof.  Each  divided  in  the 
middle,  and  having  a  brick  chimney  outside  the  wall  at  either 
end,  was  intended  to  be  occupied  by  two  families.  There 
were  square  windows,  closed  by  wooden  ports,  having  a  single 
pane  of  glass  in  the  centre.  The  house-servants  were  neatly 
dressed,  but  the  field-hands  wore  very  coarse  and  ragged 
garments. 

During  the  three  hours,  or  more,  in  which  I  was  in  com- 
pany with  the  proprietor,  I  do  not  think  ten  consecutive 
minutes  passed  uninterrupted  by  some  of.  the  slaves  requiring 
his  personal  direction  or  assistance.  "  He  was  even  obliged, 
three  times,  to  leave  the  dinner-table. 

"  You  see,"  said  he,  smiling,  as  he  came  in  the  last  time, 
"  a  farmer's  life,  in  this  country,  is  no  sinecure."  Then  turn- 
ing the  conversation  to  slavery,  he  observed,  in  answer  to  a 
remark  of  mine,  "  I  only  wish  your  philanthropists  would  con- 


VIRGINIA.  53 

trive  some  satisfactory  plan  to  relieve  us  of  it ;  the  trouble  and 
the  responsibility  of  properly  taking  care  of  our  negroes,  you 
may  judge,  from  what  you  see  yourself  here,  is  anything  bu  ^ 
enviable.     But  what  can  we  do  that  is  better  ?     Our  free    ^ 
negroes — and  I  believe  it  is  the  same  at  the  North  as  it  is 
here — are  a  miserable   set   of  vagabonds,   drunken,  vicious, 
worse  off,  it  is  my  honest  opinion,  than  those  who  are  retained  / 
in  slavery.     I  am  satisfied,  too,  that  our  slaves  are  better  offf 
as  they  are,  than  the  majority  of  your  free  labouring  classes 
at  the  North." 

I  expressed  my  doubts. 

"  Well,  they  certainly  are  better  off  than  the  English  agri- 
cultural labourers,  or,  I  believe,  those  of  any  other  Christian 
country.  Free  labour  might  be  more  profitable  to  us :  I  am 
inclined  to  think  it  would  be.  The  slaves  are  excessively 
careless  and  wasteful,  and,  in  various  ways — which,  without 
you  lived  among  them,  you  could  hardly  be  made  to  understand 
— subject  us  to  very  annoying  losses. 

"  To  make  anything  by  farming,  here,  a  man  has  got  to  live 
a  hard  life.  You  see  how  constantly  I  am  called  upon — and, 
often,  it  is  about  as  bad  at  night  as  by  day.  Last  night  I 
did  not  sleep  a  wink  till  near  morning  ;  I  am  quite  worn  out 
with  it,  and  my  wife's  health  is  failing.  But  I  cannot  rid 
myself  of  it." 

I  asked  why  he  did  not  employ  an  overseer. 

"  Because  I  do  not  think  it  right  to  trust  to  such  men  as 
we  have  to  use,  if  we  use  any,  for  overseers." 

"  Is  the  general  character  of  overseers  bad  ?" 

"  They  are  the  curse  of  this  country,  sir ;  the  worst  men 
in  the  community.  *  *  *  *  But  lately,  I  had  another  sort 
of  fellow  offer — a  fellow  like  a  dancing-master,  with  kid  gloves, 
and  wrist-bands  turned  up  over  his  coat-sleeves,  and  all  so 
nice,  that  I  was  almost  ashamed  to  talk  to  him  in  my  old 


54  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

coat  and  slouched  hat.  Half  a  bushel  of  recommendations  he 
had  with  him,  too.  Well,  he  was  not  the  man  for  me — not 
half  the  gentleman,  with  all  his  airs,  that  Ned  here  is  " — (a 
black  servant,  who  was  bursting  with  suppressed  laughter, 
behind  his  chair). 

"  Oh,  they  are  interesting  creatures,  sir,"  he  continued, 
"and,  with  all  their  faults,  have  many  beautiful  traits.  I 
can't  help  being  attached  to  them,  and  I  am  sure  they  love 
us."  In  his  own  case,  at  least,  I  did  not  doubt ;  his  manner 
towards  them  was  paternal — familiar  and  kind  ;  and  they 
came  to  him  like  children  who  have  been  given  some  task, 
rand  constantly  are  wanting  to  be  encouraged  and  guided, 
simply  and  confidently.  At  dinner,  he  frequently  addressed 
the  servant  familiarly,  and  drew  him  into  our  conversation  as 
if  he  were  a  family  friend,  better  informed,  on  some  local  and 
domestic  points,  than  himself. 

I  have  been  visiting  a  coal-pit :  the  majority  of  the  mining 
labourers  are  slaves,  and  uncommonly  athletic  and  fine-look- 
ing negroes  ;  but  a  considerable  number  of  white  hands -are 
also  employed,  and  they  occupy  all  the  responsible  posts. 
The  slaves  are,  some  of  them,  owned  by  the  mining  company  ; 
but  the  most  are  hired  of  their  owners,  at  from  8 120  to  g  200 
a  year,  the  company  boarding  and  clothing  them.  (I  under- 
stood that  it  was  customary  to  give  them  a  certain  allowance 
of  money  and  let  them  find  their  own  board.) 

The  white  hands  are  mostly  English  or  Welsh.  One 
of  them,  with  whom  I  conversed,  told  me  that  he  had  been 
here  several  years  ;  he  had  previously  lived  some  years  at  the 
North.  He  got  better  wages  here  than  lie  earned  at  the 
North,  but  he  was  not  contented,  and  did  not  intend  to 
remain.  On  pressing  him  for  the  reason  of  his  discontent,  he 
said,  after  some  hesitation,  he  would  rather  live  where  he 


VIRGINIA.  55 

could  be  more  free  ;  a  man  had  to  be  too  "  discreet  "  here  : 
if  one  happened  to  say  anything  that  gave  offence,  they 
thought  no  more  of  drawing  a  pistol  or  a  knife  upon  him, 
than  they  would  of  kicking  a  dog  that  was  in  their  way. 
Not  long  since,  a  young  English  fellow  came  to  the  pit,  and 
was  put  to  work  along  with  a  gang  of  negroes.  One  morn- 
ing, about  a  week  afterwards,  twenty  or  thirty  men  called  on 
him,  and  told  him  that  they  would  allow  him  fifteen  minutes 
to  get  out  of  eight,  and  if  they  ever  saw  him  in  those  parts 
again  they  would  "  give  him  hell."  They  were  all  armed, 
and  there  was  nothing  for  the  young  fellow  to  do  but  to  move 
"  right  off." 

"  What  reason  did  they  give  him  for  it  ?" 

"  They  did  not  give  him  any  reason." 

"  But  what  had  he  done  ?" 

"  Why,  I  believe  they  thought  he  had  been  too  free  with  the 
niggers ;  he  wasn't  used  to  them,  you  see,  sir,  and  he  talked 
to  'em  free  like,  and  they  thought  he'd  make  'em  think  too 
much  of  themselves." 

He  said  the  slaves  were  very  well  fed,  and  well  treated — 
not  worked  over  hard.  They  were  employed  night  and  day, 
in  relays. 

The  coal  from  these  beds  is  of  special  value  for  gas  manu- 
facture, and  is  shipped,  for  that  purpose,  to  all  the  large  towns 
on  the  Atlantic  sea-board,  even  to  beyond  Boston.  It  is  de- 
livered to  shipping  at  Richmond,  at  fifteen  cents  a  bushel : 
about  thirty  bushels  go  to  a  ton. 

Petersburg. — The  train  was  advertised  to  leave  at  3.30  P.M. 
At  that  hour  the  cars  were  crowded  with  passengers,  and  the 
engineer,  punctually  at  the  minute,  gave  notice  that  he  was 
at  his  post,  by  a  long,  loud  whistle  of  the  locomotive.  Five 
minutes  afterwards  he  gave  us  an  impatient  jerk ;  ten  minuteg 


5C  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

afterwards  we  advanced  three  rods ;  twelve  minutes  afterwards, 
returned  to  first  position :  continued,  "  backing  and  filling," 
upon  the  bridge  over  the  rapids  of  the  James  river,  for  half  an 
hour.  At  precisely  four  o'clock,  crossed  the  bridge  and  fairly 
started  for  Petersburg. 

Ban  twenty  miles  in  exactly  an  hour  and  thirty  minutes, 
(thirteen  miles  an  hour ;  mail  train,  especially  recommended 
by  advertisement  as  "  fast").  Brakes  on  three  times,  for  cattle 
on  the  track;  twenty  minutes  spent  at  way-stations.  Flat 
rail.  Locomotive  built  at  Philadelphia.  I  am  informed  that 
most  of  those  used  on  the  road — perhaps  all  those  of  the  slow 
trains — are  made  at  Petersburg. 

At  one  of  the  stoppages,  smoke  was  to  be  seen  issuing  from 
the  truck  of  a  car.  The  conductor,  on  having  his  attention 
called  to  it,  nodded  his  head  sagely,  took  a  morsel  of  tobacco, 
put  his  hands  in  his  pocket,  looked  at  the  truck  as  if  he  would 
mesmerize  it,  spat  upon  it,  and  then  stept  upon  the  platform 
and  shouted,  "  All  right !  Gro  ahead  !"  At  the  next  stoppage, 
the  smoking  was  furious ;  conductor  bent  himself  over  it  with 
an  evidently  strong  exercise  of  his  will,  but  not  succeeding  to 
tranquillize  the  subject  at  all,  he  suddenly  relinquished  the 
attempt,  and,  deserting  Mesmer  for  Preisnitz,  shouted,  "  Ho  ! 
boy  !  bring  me  some  water  here."  A  negro  soon  brought  a 
quart  of  water  in  a  tin  vessel. 

"  Hain't  got  no  oil,  Columbus  ?" 

"No,  sir." 

"  Hum — go  ask  Mr.  Smith  for  some  :  this  yer's  a  screaking 
so,  I  durstn't  go  on.  You  Scott !  get  some  salt.  And  look 
here,  some  of  you  boys,  get  me  some  more  water.  D'ye  hear  ?" 

Salt,  oil,  and  water,  were  crowded  into  the  box,  and,  after 
five  minutes'  longer  delay,  we  went  on,  the  truck  still  smoking, 
and  the  water  and  oil  boiling  in  the  box,  until  we  reached 
Petersburg.  The  heat  was  the  result,  I  suppose,  of  a  neglect 


61 

VIRGINIA. 

of  sufficient  or  timely  oiling.      While  waiting,  in  .  r°ymS   .  e 
for  the  driver  to  get  my  baggage,  I  saw  a  negro  oiling  aL     l 
trucks  of  the  train ;  as  he  proceeded  from  one  to  other,  he  did 
not  give  himself  the  trouble  to  elevate  the  outlet  of  his  oiler, 
so  that  a  stream  of  oil,  costing  probably  a  dollar  and  a  half  a 
gallon,  was  poured  out  upon  the  ground  the  whole  length  of 
the  train. 

There  were,  in  the  train,  two  first-class  passenger  cars,  and 
two  freight  cars.  The  latter  were  occupied  by  about  forty 
negroes,  most  of  them  belonging  to  traders,  who  were  sending 
them  to  the  cotton  States  to  be  sold.  Such  kind  of  evidence 
of  activity  in  the  slave  trade  of  Virginia  is  to  be  seen  every 
day ;  but  particulars  and  statistics  of  it  are  not  to  be  obtained 
by  a  stranger  here.  Most  gentlemen  of  character  seem  to 
have  ft  special  disinclination  to  converse  on  the  subject ;  and  it 
is  denied,  with  feeling,  that  slaves  are  often  reared,  as  is 
supposed  by  the  Abolitionists,  with  the  intention  of  selling 
them  to  the  traders.  It  appears  to  me  evident,  however,  from 
the  manner  in  which  I  hear  the  traffic  spoken  of  incidentally, 
that  the  cash  value  of  a  slave  for  sale,  above  the  cost  of  raising 
it  from  infancy  to  the  age  at  which  it  commands  the  highest 
price,  is  generally  considered  among  the  surest  elements  of  a 
planter's  wealth.  Such  a  nigger  is  worth  such  a  price,  and 
such  another  is  too  old  to  learn  to  pick  cotton,  and  such  another 
will  bring  so  much,  when  it  has  grown  a  little  more,  I  have 
frequently  heard  people  say,  in  the  street,  or  the  public-houses. 
That  a  slave  woman  is  commonly  esteemed  least  for  her  work- 
ing qualities,  most  for  those  qualities  which  give  value  to  a 
brood-mare  is,  also,  constantly  made  apparent.* 

*  A.  slaveholder  writing  to  me  with  regard  to  my  cautious  statements  on  this 
subject,  made  in  the  Daily  Times,  says  : — "  In  the  States  of  Maryland,  Virginia, 
North  Carolina,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  Missouri,  as  much  attention  is  paid 
to  the  breeding  and  growth  of  negroes  as  to  that  of  horses  and  mules.  Further 


50 


AND   SLAVERY. 


the  average  decennial  ratio  of  slave  increase 
States  with  the  difference  in  the  number  of  the  actual 
"slave-population  of  the  slave-breeding  States,  as  ascertained  by 
the  Census,  it  is  apparent  that  the  number  of.  slaves  exported 
to  the  cotton  States  is  considerably  more  than  twenty  thousand 
a  year.* 

While  calling  on  a  gentleman  occupying  an  honourable  offi- 
cial position  at  Richmond,  I  noticed  upon  his  table  a  copy  of 
Professor  Johnson's  Agricultural  Tour  in  the  United  States. 
Eeferring  to  a  paragraph  in  it,  where  some  statistics  of  the 
value  of  the  slaves  raised  and  annually  exported  from  Virginia 
were  given,  I  asked  if  he  knew  how  these  had  been  obtained, 
and  whether  they  were  authentic.  "  No,"  he  replied,  "  I  don't 
know  anything  about  it ;  but  if  they  are  anything  unfavourable 
to  the  institution  of  slavery,  you  may  be  sure  they  are  false." 
This  is  but  an  illustration,  in  extreme,  of  the  manner  in  which 
I  find  a  desire  to  obtain  more  correct  but  definite  information, 
on  the  subject  of  slavery,  is  usually  met,  by  gentlemen  other- 
wise of  enlarged  mind  and  generous  qualities. 

A  gentleman,  who  was  a  member  of  the  "Union  Safety 
Committee"  of  New  York,  during  the  excitement  which  attended 
the  discussion  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act  of  1850,  told  me  that, 
as  he  was  passing  through  Virginia  this  winter,  a  man  entered 
the  car  in  which  he  was  seated,  leading  in  a  negro  girl,  whose 
manner  and  expression  of  face  indicated  dread  and  grief. 
Thinking  she  was  a  criminal,  he  asked  the  man  what  she  had 
done. 


South,  we  raise  them  both  for  use  and  for  market.  Planters  command  their  girls 
and  women  (married  or  unmarried)  to  have  children  ;  and  I  have  known  a  great 
many  negro  girls  to  be  sold  off,  because  they  did  not  have  children.  A  breeding 
woman  is  worth  from  one-sixth  to  one-fourth  more  than  one  that  does  not  breed." 
Mr.  Ellison,  in  his  work,  '  Slavery  and  Secession,'  gives  the  annual  importa- 
tion of  negroes,  for  the  ten  years  ending  1860,  into  seven  of  the  Southern  Slave 
States,  from  the  Slave-breeding  States,  as  26*301. 


HI 
VIRGINIA.  ° l 

"Done?     Nothing."  1<*troying  the 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  with  her  ?"  ^  himX 

"  I'm  taking  her  down  to  Kichmond,  to  be  sold." 
"  Does  she  belong  to  you  ?" 

"  No  ;  she  belongs  to ;  he  raised  her." 

"  Why  does  he  sell  her — has  she  done  anything  wrong  ?" 
"  Done  anything  ?    No  :  she's  no  fault,  I  reckon." 
"  Then,  what  does  he  want  to  sell  her  for  ?" 
"  Sell  her  for  !  Why  shouldn't  he  sell  her  ?     He  sells  one 
or  two  every  year  ;  wants  the  money  for  'em,  I  reckon." 

The  irritated  tone  and  severe  stare  with  which  this  was  said, 
my  friend  took  as  a  caution  not  to  pursue  his  investigation. 

A  gentleman  with  whom  I  was  conversing  on  the  subject  of 
the  cost  of  slave  labour,  in  answer  to  an  inquiry — What  propor- 
tion of  all  the  stock  of  slaves  of  an  old  plantation  might 
be  reckoned  upon  to  do  full  work  ? — answered,  that  he 
owned  ninety-six  negroes  ;  of  these,  only  thirty-five  were 
field-hands,  the  rest  being  either  too  young  or  too  old  for 
hard  work.  He  reckoned  his  whole  force  as  only  equal  to 
twenty-one  strong  men,  or  "prime  field-hands."  But  this 
proportion  was  somewhat  smaller  than  usual,  he  added, 
"  because  his  women  were  uncommonly  good  breeders ;  he  did 
not  suppose  there  was  a  lot  of  women  anywhere  that  bred  faster 
than  his  ;  he  never  heard  of  babies  coming  so  fast  as  they 
did  on  his  plantation ;  it  was  perfectly  surprising ;  and  every 
one  of  them,  in  his  estimation,  was  worth  two  hundred  dollars, 
as  negroes  were  selling  now,  the  moment  it  drew  breath." 

I  asked  what  he  thought  might  be  the  usual  proportion  of 
workers  to  slaves,  supported  on  plantations,  throughout  the 
South.  On  the  large  cotton  and  sugar  plantations  of  the 
more  Southern  States,  it  was  very  high,  he  replied  ;  because 
their  hands  were  nearly  all  bought  and  picked  for  work  ;  he 
supposed,  on  these,  it  would  be  about  one-half;  but,  on  any 


50  >*7TTON    AND    SLAVERY. 


where  the  stock  of  slaves  had  heen  an  inheri- 
and  none  had  been  bought  or  sold,  he  thought  the 
A'orking  force  would  rarely  be  more  than  one-third,  at  most, 
of  the  whole  number. 

This  gentleman  was  out  of  health,  and  told  me,  with 
frankness,  that  such  was  the  trouble  and  annoyance  his 
negroes  occasioned  him — although  he  had  an  overseer — and 
so  wearisome  did  he  find  the  lonely  life  he  led  on  his  plan- 
tation, that  he  could  not  remain  upon  it ;  and  as  he  knew 
everything  would  go  to  the  dogs  if  he  did  not,  he  was 
seriously  contemplating  to  sell  out,  retaining  only  his  foster- 
mother  and  a  body  servant.  He  thought  of  taking  them  to 
Louisiana  and  Texas,  for  sale ;  but,  if  he  should  learn  that 
there  was  much  probability  that  Lower  California  would  be 
made  a  Slave  State,  he  supposed  it  would  pay  him  to  wait,  as 
probably,  if  that  should  occur,  he  could  take  them  there  and 
sell  them  for  twice  as  much  as  they  would  now  bring  in  New 
Orleans.  He  knew  very  well,  he  said,  that,  as  they  were, 
raising  corn  and  tobacco,  they  were  paying  nothing  at  all  like 
a  fair  interest  on  their  value.* 

Some  of  his  best  hands  he  now  rented  out,  to  work  at  a 
furnace,  and  for  the  best  of  these  he  had  been  offered,  for 
next  year,  two  hundred  dollars.  He  did  not  know  whether 
he  ought  to  let  them  go,  though.  They  were  worked  hard, 
and  had  too  much  liberty,  and  were  acquiring  bad  habits. 
They  earned  money  by  overwork,  and  spent  it  for  whisky,  and 
got  a  habit  of  roaming  about  and  taking  care  of  themselves  ; 
because  when  they  were  not  at  work  in  the  furnace,  nobody 
.ooked  out  for  them. 

I  begin  to  suspect  that  the  great  trouble  and  anxiety  of 

*  Mr.  Wise  is  reported  to  have  stated,  in  his  electioneering  tour,  when  candi- 
date for  Governor,  in  1855,  that,  if  slavery  were  permitted  in  California,  negroos 
would  sell  for  #5,000  apiece. 


VIRGINIA.  61 

Southern  gentlemen  is  : — How,  without  quite  destroying  the 
capabilities  of  the  negro  for  any  work  at  all,  to  prevent  him 
from  learning  to  take  care  of  himself. 

Petersburg,  Dec.  ZSth. — It  was  early  on  a  fine,  mild,  bright 
morning,  like  the  pleasantest  we  ever  have  in  March,  that  I 
alighted  from  a  train  of  cars,  at  a  country  station.  Besides 
the  shanty  that  stood  for  a  station-house,  there  was  a  small, 
comfortable  farm-house  on  the  right,  and  a  country  store  on 
the  left,  and  around  them,  perhaps,  fifty  acres  of  clear  land, 
now  much  flooded  with  muddy  water ; — all  framed  in  by  thick 
pine  wood. 

A  few  negro  children,  staring  as  fixedly  and  posed  as  life- 
lessly as  if  they  were  really  figures  "  carved  in  ebony,"  stood, 
lay,  and  lounged  on  the  sunny  side  of  the  ranks  of  locomotive- 
firewood  ;  a  white  man,  smoking  a  cigar,  looked  out  of  the 
door  of  the  store,  and  another,  chewing  tobacco,  leaned 
against  a  gate-post  in  front  of  the  farm-house ;  I  advanced  to 
the  latter,  and  asked  him  if  I  could  hire  a  horse  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood. 

"  How  d'ye  do,  sir  ?  "  he  replied,  spitting  and  bowing  wiih 
ceremony;  "I  have  some  horses — none  on  'em  very  good 
ones,  though — rather  hard  riders ;  reckon,  perhaps,  they 
wouldn't  suit  you." 

"  Thank  you;  do  you  think  I  could  find  anything  better 
about  here  ?" 

"  Colonel  Gillin,  over  here  to  the  store,  's  got  a  right  nice 
saddle-horse,  if  he'll  let  you  take  her.  I'll  go  over  there  with 

you,  and  see  if  he  will Mornin',  Colonel ; — here's  a 

gentleman  that  wants  to  go  to  Thomas  W.'s :  couldn't  you 
let  him  have  your  saddle-horse  ?" 

"  How  do  you  do,  sir;  I  suppose  you'd  come  back  to-night  ?" 

"  That's  my  intention ;  but  I  might  be  detained  till  to- 


62  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

morrow,  unless  it  would  be  inconvenient  to  you  to  spare  your 
horse." 

"Well,  yes,  sir,  I  reckon  you  can  have  her; — Tom! — 
Tom ! — Tom !     Now,  has  that  devilish  nigger  gone  again  ? 
Tom  !     Oh,  Tom  !    saddle  the  filly  for  this  gentleman.— 
Have  you  ever  been  to  Mr.  W.'s,  sir  ?" 

"  No,  I  have  not." 

"  It  isn't  a  very  easy  place  for  strangers  to  go  to  from  here ; 
but  I  reckon  I  can  direct  you,  so  you'll  have  no  difficulty." 

He  accordingly  began  to  direct  me  ;  but  the  way  appeared 
so  difficult  to  find,  I  asked  him  to  let  me  make  a  written 
memorandum,  and,  from  this  memorandum,  I  now  repeat  the 
directions  he  gave  me. 

"You  take  this  road  here — you'll  see  where  it's  most 
travelled,  and  it's  easy  enough  to  keep  on  it  for  about  a  mile ; 
then  there's  a  fork,  and  you  take  the  right ;  pretty  soon, 
you'll  cross  a  creek  and  turn  to  the  right — the  creek's  been  up 
a  good  deal  lately,  and  there's  some  big  trees  fallen  along 
there,  and  if  they  ha'n't  got  them  out  of  the  way,  you  may 
have  some  difficulty  in  finding  where  the  road  is ;  but  you 
.keep  bearing  off  to  the  right,  where  it's  the  most  open  [i.e., 
the  wood],  and  you'll  see  it  again  pretty  soon.  Then  you  go 
on,  keeping  along  in  the  road — you'll  see  where  folks  have 
travelled  before — for  may  be  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  and  you'll  find 
a  cross  road ;  you  must  take  that  to  the  left ;  pretty  soon 
you'll  pass  two  cabins ;  one  of  'em's  old  and  all  fallen  in,  the 
other  one's  new,  and  there's  a  white  man  lives  into  it :  you 
can't  mistake  it.  About  a  hundred  yards  beyond  it,  there's  a 
fork,  and  you  take  the  left — it  turns  square  off,  and  it's  fenced 
for  a  good  bit ;  keep  along  by  the  fence,  and  you  can't  miss 
it.  It's  right  straight  beyond  that  till  you  come  to  a  school- 
house,  there's  a  gate  opposite  to  it,  and  off  there  there's  a  big 
house — but  I  don't  reckon  you'll  see  it  neither,  for  the  woods. 


VIRGINIA.  63 

But  somewhere,  about  three  hundred  yards  beyond  the  school- 
house,  you'll  find  a  little  road  running  off  to  the  left  through 
an  old  field ;  you  take  that,  and  in  leas  than  half  a  mile  you'll 
find  a  path  going  square  off  to  the  right ;  you  take  that,  and 
keep  on  it  till  you  pass  a  little  cabin  in  the  woods;  ain't 
nobody  lives  there  now :  then  it  turns  to  the  left,  and  when 
you  come  to  a  fence  and  a  gate,  you'll  see  a  house  there,  that's 
Mr.  George  Eivers'  plantation — it  breaks  in  two,  and  you 
take  the  right,  and  when  you  come  to  the  end  of  the  fence, 
turn  the  corner — don't  keep  on,  but  turn  there.  Then  it's 
straight,  till  you  come  to  the  creek  again — there's  a  bridge 
there  ;  don't  go  over  the  bridge,  but  turn  to  the  left,  and  keep 
along  nigh  the  creek,  and  pretty  soon  you'll  see  a  meeting- 
house'in  the  woods;  you  go  to  that,  and  you'll  see  a  path 
bearing  off  to  the  right — it  looks  as  if  it  was  going  right  away 
from  the  creek,  but  you  take  it,  and  pretty  soon  it'll  bring  you 
to  a  saw-mill  on  the  creek,  up  higher  a  piece ;  you  just  cross 
the  creek  there,  and  you'll  find  some  people  at  the  mill,  and 
they'll  put  you  right  straight  on  the  road  to  Mr.  W.'s." 

"  How  fer  is  it  all,  sir  ?" 

"  I  reckon  it's  about  two  hours'  ride,  when  the  roads  are 
good,  to  the  saw-mill.  Mr.  W.'s  gate  is  only  a  mile  or  so 
beyond  that,  and  then  you've  got  another  mile,  or  better, 
after  you  get  to  the  gate,  but  you'll  see  some  nigger-quarters 
— the  niggers  belong  to  Mr.  W.,  and  I  reckon  ther'll  be  some 
of  'em  round,  and  they'll  show  you  just  where  to  go." 

After  reading  over  my  memorandum,  and  finding  it  correct, 
and  agreeing  with  him  that  I  should  pay  two  dollars  a  day 
for  the  mare,  we  walked  out,  and  found  her  saddled  and 
waiting  for  me. 

I  remarked  that  she  was  very  good  looking. 

"  Yes,  sir ;  she  ain't  a  bad  filly  ;  out  of  a  mare  that  came 
of  Lady  Kackett  by  old  Lord-knows-who,  the  best  horse  we 


64  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

ever  had  in  this  part  of  the  country :  I  expect  you  have  heard 
of  him.  Oh  !  she's  maybe  a  little  playful,  but  you'll  find  her 
a  pleasant  riding-horse." 

The  filly  was  just  so  pleasantly  playful,  and  full  of  well- 
bred  life,  as  to  create  a  joyful,  healthy,  sympathetic,  frolic- 
some heedlessness  in  her  rider,  and,  in  two  hours,  we  had  lost 
our  way,  and  I  was  trying  to  work  up  a  dead  reckoning. 

First,  we  had  picked  our  way  from  the  store  down  to  the 
brook,  through  a  deeply  corrugated  clay-road ;  then  there 
was  the  swamp,  with  the  fallen  trees  and  thick  underwood, 
beaten  down  and  barked  in  the  miry  parts  by  waggons 
making  a  road  for  themselves,  no  traces  of  which  road  could 
we  find  in  the  harder,  pebbly  ground.  At  length,  when  we 
came  to  drier  land,  and  among  pine  trees,  we  discovered  a 
clear  way  cut  through  them,  and  a  distinct  road  before  us 
again;  and  this  brought  us  soon  to  an  old  clearing,  just 
beginning  to  be  grown  over  with  pines,  in  which  was  the  old 
cabin  of  rotten  logs,  one  or  two  of  them  falling  out  of  rank 
on  the  door  side,  and  the  whole  concern  having  a  dangerous 
lurch  to  one  corner,  as  if  too  much  whisky  had  been  drunk  in 
it:  then  a  more  recent  clearing,  with  a  fenced  field  and 
another  cabin,  the  residence  of  the  white  man  we  were  told 
of,  probably.  No  white  people,  however,  were  to  be  seen, 
but  two  negroes  sat  in  the  mouth  of  a  wigwam,  husking 
maize,  and  a  couple  of  hungry  hounds  came  bounding  over 
the  zig-zag,  gateless  fence,  as  if  they  had  agreed  with  each 
other  that  they  would  wait  no  longer  for  the  return  of  their 
master,  but  would  straightway  pull  down  the  first  traveller 
that  passed,  and  have  something  to  eat  before  they  were  quite 
famished.  They  stopped  short,  however,  when  they  had  got 
within  a  good  cart-whip's  length  of  us,  and  contented  them- 
selves with  dolefully  youping  as  long  as  we  continued  in  sight. 
We  turned  the  corner,  following  some  slight  traces  of  a  road, 


VIRGINIA.  65 

and  shortly  afterwards  met  a  curious  vehicular  establishment, 
probably  belonging  to  the  master  of  the  hounds.  It  consisted 
of  an  axle-tree  and  wheels,  and  a  pair  of  shafts  made  of  un- 
barked  saplings,  in  which  was  harnessed,  by  attachments  of 
raw  hide  and  rope,  a  single  small  black  ox.  There  was  a  bit, 
made  of  telegraph  wire,  in  his  mouth,  by  which  he  was 
guided,  through  the  mediation  of  a  pair  of  much-knotted 
rope  reins,  by  a  white  man — a  dignified  sovereign,  wearing  a 
brimless  crown — who  sat  upon  a  two-bushel  sack  (of  meal,  I 
trust,  for  the  hounds'  sake),  balanced  upon  the  axle-tree,  and 
who  saluted  me  with  a  frank  "  How  are  you  ?"  as  we  came 
opposite  each  other. 

Soon  after  this,  we  reached  a  small  grove  of  much  older 
and  larger  pines  than  we  had  seen  before,  with  long  and 
horizontally  stretching  branches,  and  duller  and  thinner 
foliage.  In  the  middle  of  it  was  another  log  cabin,  with  a 
door  in  one  of  the  gable  ends,  a  stove  pipe,  half  rusted  away, 
protruding  from  the  other,  and,  in  the  middle  of  one  of  the 
sides,  a  small  square  port-hole,  closed  by  a  wooden  shutter. 
This  must  have  been  the  school-house;  but  there  were  no 
children  then  about  it,  and  no  appearance  of  there  having  been 
any  lately.  Near  it  was  a  long  string  of  fence,  and  a  gate  and 
lane,  which  gave  entrance,  probably,  to  a  large  plantation, 
though  there  was  no  cultivated  land  within  sight  of  the 
road. 

I  could  remember  hardly  anything  after  this,  except  a  con- 
tinuation of  pine  trees,  big,  little,  and  medium  in  size,  and 
hogs,  and  a  black,  crooked,  burnt  sapling,  that  we  had  made 
Believe  was  a  snake  springing  at  us  and  had  jumped  away 
Irom,  and  then  we  had  gone  on  at  a  trot — it  must  have  been 
some  time  ago,  that — and  then  I  was  paying  attentions  to 
Jane  (the  filly's  name  was  Jane  Gillan),  and  finally  my 
thoughts  had  gone  wool-gathering,  and  we  must  have  tra- 

VOL.  i.  p 


(JtJ  COTTON    AND   SLAVERY. 

veiled  some  miles  out  of  our  way  and — "  Never  mind,"  said 
Jane,  lifting  her  head,  and  turning  in  the  direction  we  had 
been  going,  "  I  don't  think  it's  any  great  matter  if  we  are 
lost ;  such  a  fine  day — so  long  since  I've  been  out ;  if  you 
don't  care,  I'd  just  as  Kef  be  lost  as  not ;  let's  go  on  and  see 
what  we  shall  come  to." 

"  Very  well,  my  beauty ;  you  know  the  country  better  than 
I  do.  If  you'll  risk  your  dinner,  I'm  quite  ready  to  go  any- 
where you  choose  to  take  me.  It's  quite  certain  we  have  not 
passed  any  meeting-house,  or  creek,  or  saw-mill,  or  negro- 
quarters,  and,  as  we  have  been  two  hours  on  the  road,  it's 
evident  we  are  not  going  straight  to  Mr.  W.'s ;  I  must  see 
what  we  do  pass  after  this,"  and  I  stood  up  in  the  stirrups  as 
we  walked  on,  to  see  what  the  country  around  us  was  like. 

"  Old  fields  " — a  coarse,  yellow,  sandy  soil,  bearing  scarcely 
anything  but  pine  trees  and  broom-sedge.  In  some  places, 
for  acres,  the  pines  would  not  be  above  five  feet  high — that 
was  land  that  had  been  in  cultivation,  used  up  and  "  turned 
out,"  not  more  than  six  or  eight  years  before ;  then  there 
were  patches  of  every  age  ;  sometimes  the  trees  were  a  hun- 
dred feet  high.  At  long  intervals,  there  were  fields  in  which 
the  pine  was  just  beginning  to  spring  in  beautiful  green 
plumes  from  the  ground,  and  was  yet  hardly  noticeable 
among  the  dead  brown  grass  and  sassafras  bushes  and  black- 
berry vines,  which  nature  first  sends  to  hide  the  nakedness  of 
the  impoverished  earth. 

Of  living  creatures,  for  miles,  not  one  was  to  be  seen  (not 
even  a  crow  or  a  snow-bird),  except  hogs.  These — long, 
knk,  bony,  snake-headed,  hairy,  wild  beasts — would  come 
.  dashing  across  our  path,  in  packs  of  from  three  to  a  dozen, 
with  short,  hasty  grunts,  almost  always  at  a  gallop,  and  look- 
ing neither  to  right  nor  left,  as  if  they  were  in  pursuit  of  a 
fox.  and  were  quite  certain  to  catch  him  in  the  next  hundred 


VIRGINIA.  67 

yards  ;  or  droves  of  little  pigs  would  rise  up  suddenly  in  the 
sedge,  and  scamper  off  squealing  into  cover,  while  their  heroic 
mothers  would  turn  round  and  make  a  stand,  looking  fiercely 
at  us,  as  if  they  were  quite  ready  to  fight  if  we  advanced  any 
further,  but  always  breaking,  as  we  came  near,  with  a  loud 
loosch  ! 

Once  I  saw  a  house,  across  a  large,  new  old  field,  but  it 
was  far  off,  and  there  was  no  distinct  path  leading  towards  it 
out  of  the  waggon-track  we  were  following ;  so  we  did  not  go 
to  it,  but  continued  walking  steadily  on  through  the  old  fields 
and  pine  woods  for  more  than  an  hour  longer. 

We  then  arrived  at  a  grove  of  tall  oak-trees,  in  the  midst 
of  which  ran  a  brook,  giving  motion  to  a  small  grist-mill. 
Back  of  the  mill  were  two  log  cabins,  and  near  these  a  num- 
ber of  negroes,  in  holiday  clothes,  were  standing  in  groups 
among  the  trees.  When  we  stopped  one  of  them  came 
towards  us.  He  wore  a  battered  old  hat,  stiffly  starched  shirt 
collar,  cutting  his  ears  ;  a  red  cravat,  and  an  old  black  dress 
coat,  threadbare  and  a  little  ragged,  but  adorned  with  new 
brass  buttons.  He  knew  Mr.  Thomas  W.,  certainly  he  did, 
and  he  reckoned  I  had  come  about  four  miles  (he  did  not 
know  but  it  might  be  eight,  if  I  thought  so)  off  the  road  I 
had  been  directed  to  follow.  But  that  was  6f  no  consequence, 
because  he  could  show  me  where  to  go  by  a  straight  road — a 
cross  cut — from  here,  that  would  make  it  just  as  quick  for  me 
as  if  I  had  gone  the  way  I  had  intended. 

"  How  far  is  it  from  here  ?"  I  asked. 

"  Oh,  'taint  far,  sar." 

"  How  far  do  you  think  ?" 

"  Well,  massa,  I  spec — I  spec — (looking  at  my  horse)  I 
spec,  massa,  ef  you  goes  de  way,  sar,  dat  I  show  you,  sar,  I 
reckon  it  '11  take  you " 

"  How  far  is  it — how  many  miles  ?" 

F  2 


68  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

"  How  many  miles,  sar  ?  ha !  inasser,  I  don  'zactly  reckon 
I  ken  tell  ou — not  'cisely,  sar — how  many  miles  it  is,  not 
'zactly,  'cisely,  sar." 

"  How  is  that  ? — you  don't  what  ?" 

"  I  don't  'zactly  reckon  I  can  give  you  de  drection  excise 
about  de  miles,  sar." 

"  Oh  !  but  how  many  miles  do  you  think  it  is ;  is  it  two 
miles  ?" 

"  Yes,  sar ;  as  de  roads  is  now,  I  tink  it  is  just  about  two 
miles.  Dey's  long  ones,  dough,  I  reckon." 

"  Long  ones  ?  you  think  it's  more  than  two  miles,  don't 
you,  then  ?" 

"  Yes,  sar,  I  reckon  it's  four  or  five  miles." 

"  Four  or  five  !  four  or  five  long  ones  or  short  ones,  do  you 
mean  ?" 

"  I  don  'zactly  know,  sar,  wedder  dey  is  short  ones  or  long 
ones,  sar,  but  I  reckon  you  find  em  rniddlin'  long ;  I  spec 
you'll  be  about  two  hours  'fore  you  be  done  gone  all  the  way 
to  Mass  W.'s." 

He  walked  on  with  us  a  few  rods  upon  a  narrow  path,  until 
we  came  to  a  crossing  of  the  stream ;  pointing  to  where  it 
continued  on  the  other  side,  he  assured  me  that  it  went  right 
straight  to  Mr.  W.'s  plantation.  "  Youjuss  keep  de  straight 
road,  massar,"  he  repeated  several  times,  "  and  it'll  take  you 
right  dar,  sar." 

He  had  been  grinning  and  bowing,  and  constantly  touching 
his  hat,  or  holding  it  in  his  hand  during  our  conversation , 
which  I  understood  to  mean,  that  he  would  thank  me  for  a 
dime.  I  gave  it  to  him,  upon  which  he  repeated  his  contor- 
tions and  his  form  of  direction — "  Keep  de  straight  road."  I 
rode  through  the  brook,  and  he  called  out  again — "  You  keep 
dat  road  right  straight,  and  it'll  take  you  right  straight 
dar."  I  rode  up  the  bank  and  entered  the  oak  wood,  and 


VIRGINIA.  69 

still  again  heard  him  enjoining  me  to  "  keep  dat  road  right 
straight." 

AVitkin  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  there  was  a  fork  in 
the  road  to  the  left,  which  seemed  a  good  deal  more  travelled 
than  the  straight  one  ;  nevertheless  I  kept  the  latter,  and  was 
soon  well  satisfied  that  I  had  done  so.  It  presently  led  me 
up  a  slope  out  of  the  oak  woods  into  a  dark  evergreen  forest ; 
and  though  it  was  a  mere  bridle-path,  it  must  have  existed,  I 
thought,  before  the  trees  began  to  grow,  for  it  was  free  of 
stumps,  and  smooth  and  clean  as  a  garden  walk,  and  the 
pines  grew  thickly  up,  about  four  feet  apart,  on  each  side  of 
it,  their  branches  meeting,  just  clear  of  my  head,  and  making 
a  dense  shade.  There  was  an  agreeable,  slightly  balsamic 
odour  in  the  air ;  the  path  was  covered  with  a  deep,  elastic 
mat  of  pine  leaves,  so  that  our  footstep  could  hardly  be  heard ; 
and  for  a  time  we  greatly  enjoyed  going  along  at  a  lazy, 
pacing  walk  of  Jane's.  It  was  noon-day,  and  had  been  rather 
warmer  than  was  quite  agreeable  on  the  open  road,  and  I 
took  my  hat  off,  and  let  the  living  pine  leaves  brush  my  hair. 
But,  after  a  while,  I  felt  slightly  chilly ;  and  when  Jane,  at 
the  same  tune,  gave  a  little  sympathizing  caper,  I  bent  my 
head  down,  that  the  limbs  might  not  hit  me,  until  it  nearly 
rested  on  her  neck,  dropped  my  hands  and  pressed  my  knees 
tightly  against  her.  Away  we  bounded  ! 

A  glorious  gallop  Jane  had  inherited  from  her  noble  grand- 
father ! 

Out  of  the  cool  dark-green  alley,  at  last,  and  soon,  with  a 
more  cautious  step,  down  a  steep,  stony  declivity,  set  with 
deciduous  trees — beech,  ash,  oak,  gum — "gum,"  beloved  of 
the  "  minstrels."  A  brawling  shallow  brook  at  the  bottom, 
into  which  our  path  descended,  though  on  the  opposite  shore 
was  a  steep  high  bank,  faced  by  an  impenetrable  brake  of 
bush  and  brier. 


70  COTTON   AND    SLAVEBY. 

Have  we  been  following  a  path  only  leading  to  a  watering- 
place,  then  ?  I  see  no  continuance  of  it.  Jane  does  not 
hesitate  at  all ;  but,  as  if  it  was  the  commonest  thing  here  to 
take  advantage  of  nature's  engineering  in  this  way,  walking 
into  the  water,  turns  her  head  up  stream. 

For  more  than  a  mile  we  continued  following  up  the  brook, 
which  was  all  the  time  walled  in  by  insurmountable  banks, 
overhung  by  large  trees.  Sometimes  it  swept  strongly 
through  a  deep  channel,  contracted  by  boulders ;  sometimes 
purled  and  tinkled  over  a  pebbly  slope ;  and  sometimes  stood 
in  broad,  silent  pools,  around  the  edges  of  which  remained  a 
skirt  of  ice,  held  there  by  bushes  and  long  broken  water- 
grasses. 

At  length  came  pine  woods  again.  Jane  was  now  for 
leaving  the  brook.  I  let  her  have  her  own  way,  and  she  soon 
found  a  beaten  track  in  the  woods.  It  certainly  was  not  the 
"  straight  road "  we  had  been  directed  to  follow ;  but  its 
course  was  less  crooked  than  that  of  the  brook,  and  after 
some  time  it  led  us  out  into  a  more  open  country,  with  young 
pines  and  enclosed  fields.  Eventually  we  came  to  a  gate  and 
lane,  which  we  followed  till  we  came  to  another  cross-lane 
leading  straight  to  a  farm-house. 

As  soon  as  we  turned  into  the  cross-lane,  half  a  dozen  little 
negro  boys  and  girls  were  seen  running  toward  the  house,  to 
give  alarm.  We  passed  a  stable,  with  a  cattle-pen  by  its  side, 
opposite  which  was  a  vegetable  garden,  enclosed  with  split 
palings ;  then  across  a  running  stream  of  water ;  then  by  a 
small  cabin  on  the  right ;  and  a  corn-crib  and  large  pen,  with 
a  number  of  fatting  hogs  in  it,  on  the  left ;  then  into  a  large, 
irregular  yard,  in  the  midst  of  which  was  the  farm-house, 
before  which  were  now  collected  three  white  children,  six 
black  ones,  two  negro  women,  and  an  old  lady  wearing 
spectacles. 


VIRGINIA.  71 

"  How  dy  do,  sir  ?"  said  the  old  lady,  as  we  reined  up, 
lifted  our  hat,  and  put  our  black  foot  foremost. 

"  Thank  you,  madam,  quite  well ;  but  I  have  lost  my  way 
to  Mr.  Thomas  W.'s,  and  will  trouble  you  to  tell  me  how  to 
go  from  here  to  get  to  his  house." 

By  this  time  a  black  man  came  cautiously  walking  in  from 
the  field  back  of  the  house,  bringing  an  axe  ;  a  woman,  who 
had  been  washing  clothes  in  the  brook,  left  her  work  and 
came  up  on  the  other  side,  and  two  more  girls  climbed  upon 
a  great  heap  of  logs  that  had  been  thrown  upon  the  ground, 
near  the  porch,  for  fuel.  The  swine  were  making  a  gr^at 
noise  in  their  pen,  as  if  feeding-time  had  come ;  and  a  flock 
of  turkeys  were  gobbling  so  incessantly  and  loudly  that 
I  was  not  heard.  The  old  lady  ordered  the  turkeys  to 
be  driven  away,  but  nobody  stirred  to  do  it,  and  I  rode 
nearer  and  repeated  my  request.  No  better  success.  "  Can't 
you  shew  away  them  turkeys  ?"  she  asked  again ;  but  no-- 
body "shewed."  A  third  time  I  endeavoured  to  make 
myself  understood.  "  Will  you  please  direct  me  how  to  go  to 
Mr.  W.'s  ?" 

"  No,  sir — not  here." 

"  Excuse  me — I  asked  if  you  would  direct  me  to  Mr.  W.'s." 

"  If  some  of  you  niggers  don't  shew  them  turkeys,  I'll  have 
you  all  whipped  as  soon  as  your  mass  John  comes  home," 
exclaimed  the  old  lady,  now  quite  excited.  The  man  with 
the  axe,  without  moving  towards  them  at  all,  picked  up  a 
billet  of  wood,  and  threw  it  at  the  biggest  cock-turkey,  who 
immediately  collapsed ;  and  the  whole  flock  scattered,  chased 
by  the  two  girls  who  had  been  on  the  log-heap. 

"  An't  dat  Colonel  Gillin's  mare,  master  ?"  asked  the  black 
man,  coming  up  on  my  left. 

"  You  want  to  go  to  Thomas  W.'s  ?"  asked  the  old  lady. 

"  Yes,  madam." 


72  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

"  It's  a  good  many  years  since  I  have  been  to  Thomas  W.'s, 
and  I  reckon  I  can't  tell  you  how  to  go  there  now." 

"  If  master  '11  go  over  to  Missy  Abler's,  I  reckon  dey  ken 
tell  'em  dah,  sar." 

"  And  how  shall  I  go  to  Mrs.  Abler's  ?" 

"  You  want  to  go  to  Missy  Abler's ;  you  take  dat  path 
right  over  'yond  dem  bars,  dar,  by  de  hog-pen,  dat  runs 
along  by  dat  fence  into  de  woods,  and  dat  '11  take  you  right 
straight  dar." 

"  Is  you  come  from  Colonel  Gillin's,  massa  ?"  asked  the 
wash-woman. 

"  Yes." 

"  Did  you  see  a  black  man  dar,  dey  calls  Tom,  sar  ?" 

"Yes." 

"  Tom's  my  husband,  massa ;  if  you's  gwine  back  dah,  wish 
you'd  tell  um,  ef  you  please,  sar,  dat  I  wants  to  see  him 
partiklar ;  will  ou,  massa  ?" 

"Yes." 

"  Tank  you,  massa." 

I  bowed  to  the  old  lady,  and,  in  turning  to  ride  off,  saw 
two  other  negro  boys  who  had  come  out  of  the  woods,  and 
were  now  leaning  over  the  fence,  and  staring  at  us,  as  if  I 
were  a  giant  and  Jane  was  a  dragoness. 

We  trotted  away,  found  the  path,  and  in  course  of  a  mile 
had  our  choice  of  at  least  twenty  forks  to  go  "  straight  to 
Mrs.  Abler's."  At  length,  cleared  land  again,  fences,  stubble- 
fields  and  a  lane,  that  took  us  to  a  little  cabin,  which  fronted, 
much  to  my  surprise,  upon  a  broad  and  well-travelled  road. 
Over  the  door  of  the  cabin  was  a  sign,  done  in  black,  upon  a 
hogshead  stave,  showing  that  it  was  a  "  GROSERY,"  which,  in 
Virginia,  means  the  same  thing  as  in  Ireland — a  dram-shop. 

I  hung  the  bridle  over  a  rack  before  the  door,  and  walked 
in.  At  one  end  of  the  interior  was  a  range  of  shelves,  on 
which  were  two  decanters,  some  dirty  tumblers,  a  box  of 


VIRGINIA.  73 

crackers,  a  canister,  and  several  packages  in  paper ;  under  the 
shelves  a  table  and  a  barrel.  At  the  other  end  of  the  room 
was  a  fire-place;  near  this,  a  chest,  and  another  range  of 
shelves,  on  which  stood  plates  and  cooking  utensils  :  between 
these  and  the  grocery  end  were  a  bed  and  a  spinning-wheel. 
Near  the  spinning-wheel  sat  a  tall,  bony,  sickly,  sullen  young 
woman,  nursing  a  languishing  infant.  The  faculty  would 
not  have  discouraged  either  of  them  from  trying  hydropathic 
practice.  In  a  corner  of  the  fire-place  sat  a  man,  smoking  a 
pipe.  He  rose,  as  I  entered,  walked  across  to  the  grocery- 
shelves,  turned  a  chair  round  at  the  table,  and  asked  me  to 
take  a  seat.  I  excused  myself,  and  requested  him  to  direct 
me  to  Mr.  W.'s.  He  had  heard  of  such  a  man  living  some- 
where about  there,  but  he  did  not  know  where.  He  repeated 
this,  with  an  oath,  when  I  declined  to  "  take  "  anything,  and 
added,  that  he  had  not  lived  here  long,  and  he  was  sorry  he 
had  ever  come  here.  It  was  the  worst  job,  for  himself,  ever 
he  did,  when  he  came  here,  though  all  he  wanted  was  to  just 
get  a  living. 

I  rode  on  till  I  came  to  another  house,  a  very  pleasant 
little  house,  with  a  steep,  gabled  roof,  curving  at  the  bottom, 
and  extending  over  a  little  gallery,  which  was  entered,  by 
steps,  from  the  road;  back. of  it  were  stables  and  negro- 
cabins,  and  by  its  side  was  a  small  garden,  and  beyond  that 
a  peach-orchard.  As  I  approached  it,  a  well-dressed  young 
man,  with  an  intelligent  and  pleasant  face,  came  out  into  the 
gallery.  I  asked  him  if  he  could  direct  me  to  Mr.  W.'s. 
"  Thomas  W.'s  ?"  he  inquired. 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  You  are  not  going  in  the  right  direction  to  go  to  Mr.  W.'s. 
The  shortest  way  you  can  take  to  go  there  is,  to  go  right 
back  to  the  Court  House." 

I  told  him  I  had  just  come  out  of  the  lane  by  the  grocery 


~j_  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

on  to  the  road.  "  Ah  !  well,  I'll  tell  you ;  you  had  better 
turn  round,  and  keep  right  straight  upon  this  road  till  you 
get  to  the  Court  House,  and  anybody  can  tell  you,  there, 
how  to  go." 

"  How  far  is  it,  sir  ?" 

"  To  the'  Court  House  ? — not  above  a  mile." 

"And  to  Mr.  W.'s  ?" 

"To  Mr.  W.'s,  I  should  think  it  was  as  much  as  ten 
miles,  and  long  ones,  too." 

I  rode  to  the  Court  House,  which  was  a  plain  brick  build- 
ing in  the  centre  of  a  small  square,  around  which  there  were 
twenty  or  thirty  houses,  two  of  them  being  occupied  as  stores, 
one  as  a  saddler's  shop,  one  had  the  sign  of  "  Law  Office  " 
upon  it ;  one  was  a  jail ;  two  were  occupied  by  physicians, 
one  other  looked  as  if  it  might  be  a  meeting-house  or  school- 
house,  or  the  shop  of  any  mechanic  needing  much  light  for 
his  work,  and  two  were  "Hotels."  At  one  of  these  we 
stopped  to  dine ;  Jane  had  "  corn  and  fodder"  (they  had  no 
oats  or  hay  in  the  stable),  and  I  had  ham  and  eggs  (they 
had  no  fresh  meat  in  the  house).  I  had  several  other  things, 
however,  that  were  very  good,  besides  the  company  of  the 
landlady,  who  sat  alone  with  me,  at  the  table,  in  a  long, 
dining  hall,  and  was  very  pretty,  amiable,  and  talkative. 

In  a  course  of  apologies,  which  came  in  the  place  of  soup, 
she  gave  me  the  clue  to  the  assemblage  of  negroes  I  had  seen 
at  the  mill.  It  was  Christmas  week  ;  all  the  servants  thought 
they  must  go,  for  at  least  one  day,  to  have  a  frolic,  and  to-day 
(as  luck  would  have  it,  when  I  was  comin  r,)  her  cook  was 
off  with  some  others ;  she  did  not  suppose  they'd  be  back  till 
to-morrow,  and  then,  likely  as  not,  they'd  be  drunk.  Sho 
did  not  think  this  custom,  of  letting  servants  go  so,  at 
Christmas,  was  a  good  one  ;  niggers  were  not  fit  to  be  let  to 
take  care  of  themselves,  anyhow.  It  was  very  bad  for  tkm. 


VIRGINIA.  75 

and  she  didn't  think  it  was  right.  Providence  had  put  the 
servants  into  our  hands  to  be  looked  out  for,  and  she  didn't 
believe  it  was  intended  they  should  be  let  to  do  all  sorts 
^>f  wickedness,  even  if  Christmas  did  come  but  once  a  year. 
She  wished,  for  h^r  part,  it  did  not  come  but  once  in  ten  years. 

(The  negroes,  who  were  husking  maize  near  the  cabin  where 
the  white  man  lived,  were,  no  doubt,  slaves,  who  had  hired 
themselves  out  by  the  day,  during  the  holiday-week,  to  earn 
a  little  money  on  their  own  account.) 

In  regard  to  the  size  of  the  dining-hall,  and  the  extent  of 
sheds  in  the  stable-yard,  the  landlady  told  me  that  though  at 
other  times  they  very  often  did  not  have  a  single  guest  in  a 
day,  at  "  Court  time  "  they  always  had  more  than  they  could 
comfortably  accommodate.  I  judged,  also,  from  her  manners 
and  the  general  appearance  of  the  house,  as  well  as  from  the 
charges,  that,  at  such  times,  the  company  might  be  of  a 
rather  respectable  character.  The  appearance  of  the  other 
public-house  indicated  that  it  expected  a  less  select  patronage. 

When  I  left,  my  direction  was  to  keep  on  the  main  road 
until  I  came  to  a  fork,  about  four  miles  distant,  then  take  the 
left,  and  keep  the  best-travelled  road,  until  I  came  to  a  certain 
house,  which  was  so  described  that  I  should  know  it,  where  I 
was  advised  to  ask  further  directions. 

The  sky  was  now  clouding  over ;  it  was  growing  cold ;  and 
we  went  on,  as  fast  as  we  conveniently  could,  until  we  reached 
the  fork  in  the  road.  The  direction  to  keep  the  l>est-travelled 
road,  was  unpleasantly  prominent  in  my  min<l ;  it  WHS  near 
sunset,  I  reflected,  and  however  jolly  it  might  be  at  twelve 
o'clock  at  noon,  it  would  be  quite  another  thing  to  be  knock- 
ing about  among  those  fierce  hogs  in  the  pine-forest,  if  I 
should  be  lost,  at  twelve  o'clock  at  night.  Besides,  as  the 
landlady  said  about  her  negroes,  I  did  not  think  it  was  right 
to  expose  Jane  to  this  danger,  unnecessarily.  A  little  beyond 


76  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

the  fork,  there  was  a  large,  gray,  old  house,  with  a  grove  of 
tall  poplars  before  it;  a  respectable,  country-gentleman-of- 
the-old-school  look  it  had. — These  old  Virginians  are  pro- 
verbially hospitable. — It's  rather  impudent ;  but  I  hate  to  go* 

back  to  the  Court  House,  and  I  am 1  will  ride  on,  and 

look  it  in  the  face,  at  any  rate. 

Zigzag  fences  up  to  a  large,  square  yard,  growing  full  of 
Lombardy  poplar  sprouts,  from  the  roots  of  eight  or  ten  old 
trees,  which  were  planted  some  fifty  years  ago,  I  suppose,  in 
a  double  row,  on  two  sides  of  the  house.  At  the  further  end 
of  this  yard,  beyond  the  house,  a  gate  opened  on  the  road,  and 
out  of  this  was  just  then  coming  a  black  man. 

I  inquired  of  him  if  there  was  a  house,  near  by,  at  which  I 
could  get  accommodation  for  the  night.  Reckoned  his 
master'd  take  me  in,  if  I'd  ask  him.  Where  was  his  master  ? 
In  the  house :  I  could  go  right  in  here  (at  a  place  where  a 
panel  of  the  paling  had  fallen  over)  and  see  him  if  I  wanted  to. 
I  asked  him  to  hold  my  horse,  and  went  in. 

It  was  a  simple  two-story  house,  very  much  like  those  built 
by  the  wealthier  class  of  people  in  New  England  villages, 
from  fifty  to  a  hundred  years  ago,  except  that  the  chimneys 
were  carried  up  outside  the  walls.  There  was  a  porch  at  the 
front  door,  and  a  small  wing  at  one  end,  in  the  rear :  from 
this  wing  to  the  other  end  extended  a  broad  gallery. 

A  dog  had  teen  barking  at  me  after  I  had  dismounted ; 
and  just  as  I  reached  the  steps  of  the  gallery,  a  vigorous, 
middle-aged  man,  with  a  rather  sullen  and  suspicious  ex- 
pression of  face,  came  out  without  any  coat  on,  to  see  what 
had  excited  him. 

Doubting  if  he  were  the  master  of  the  house,  I  told  him 
that  I  had  come  in  to  inquire  if  it  would  be  convenient  to 
allow  me  to  spend  the  night  with  them.  He  asked  where  I 
came  from,  whither  I  was  going,  and  various  other  questions, 


VIRGINIA.  77 

until  I  had  given  him  an  epitome  of  my  day's  wanderings 
and  adventures ;  at  the  conclusion  of  which  he  walked  to  the 
end  of  the  gallery  to  look  at  my  horse  ;  then,  without  giving 
me  any  answer,  but  muttering  indistinctly  something  about 
servants,  walked  into  the  house,  shutting  the  door  behind  him  ! 

Well,  thought  I,  this  is  not  overwhelmingly  hospitable. 
What  can  it  mean  ? 

While  I  was  considering  whether  he  expected  me  to  go 
without  any  further  talk — his  curiosity  being,  I  judged, 
satisfied — he  came  out  again,  and  said,  "  Beckon  you  can 
stay,  sir,  if  you'll  take  what  we'll  give  you."  (The  good  man 
had  been  in  to  consult  his  wife.)  I  replied  that  I  would  do 
so  thankfully,  and  hoped  they  would  not  give  themselves  any 
unnecessary  trouble,  or  alter  their  usual  family  arrangements. 
I  was  then  invited  to  come  in,  but  I  preferred  to  see  my 
horse  taken  care  of  first.  My  host  called  for  "  Sam,"  two  or 
three  times,  and  then  said  he  reckoned  all  his  "  people  "  had 
gone  off,  and  he  would  attend  to  my  horse  himself.  I  offered 
to  assist  him,  and  we  walked  out  to  the  gate,  where  the 
negro,  not  being  inclined  to  wait  for  my  return,  had  left 
Jane  fastened  to  a  post.  Our  host  conducted  us  to  an  old 
square  log-cabin  which  had  formerly  been  used  for  curing 
tobacco,  there  being  no  room  for  Jane,  he  said,  in  the  stables 
proper. 

The  floor  of  the  tobacco-house  was  covered  with  lumber, 
old  ploughs,  scythes  and  cradles,  a  part  of  which  had  to  be 
removed  to  make  room  for  the  filly  to  stand.  She  was  then 
induced,  with  some  difficulty,  to  enter  it  through  a  low, 
square  doorway ;  saddle  and  bridle  were  removed,  and  she 
was  fastened  in  a  corner  by  a  piece  of  oM.  plough-line.  We 
then  went  to  a  fodder-stack,  and  pulled  out  from  it  several 
small  bundles  of  maize  leaves.  Additional  feed  and  water 
were  promised  when  "  some  of  the  niggers  "  came  in  ;  and, 


78  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

after  righting  up  an  old  door  that  had  fallen  from  one  hinge, 
and  setting  a  rail  against  it  to  keep  it  in  its  place,  we  re- 
turned to  the  house. 

My  host  (whom  I  will  call  Mr.  Newman)  observed  that 
his  buildings  and  fences  were  a  good  deal  out  of  order.  He 
had  owned  the  place  but  a  few  years,  and  had  not  had  time  to 
make  much  improvement  about  the  house  yet. 

Entering  the  mansion,  he  took  me  to  a  large  room  on  the 
first  floor,  gave  me  a  chair,  went  out  and  soon  returned  (now 
wearing  a  coat)  with  two  negro  girls,  one  bringing  wood  and 
the  other  some  flaming  brands.  A  fire  was  made  with  a 
great  deal  of  trouble,  scolding  of  the  girls,  bringing  in  more 
brands,  and  blowing  with  the  mouth.  When  the  room  had 
been  suffocatingly  filled  with  smoke,  and  at  length  a  strong 
bright  blaze  swept  steadily  up  the  chimney,  Mr.  Newman 
again  went  out  with  the  girls,  and  I  was  left  alone  for  nearly 
an  hour,  with  one  interruption,  when  he  came  in  and  threw 
some  more  wood  upon  the  fire,  and  said  he  hoped  I  would 
make  myself  comfortable. 

It  was  a  square  room,  with  a  door  from  the  hall  on  one  side, 
and  two  windows  on  each  of  the  other  sides.  The  lower  part 
of  the  walls  was  wainscoted,  and  the  upper  part,  with  the 
ceiling,  plastered  and  whitewashed.  The  fire-place  and 
mantel-piece  were  somewhat  carved,  and  were  painted  black  ; 
all  the  wood- work  lead  colour.  Blue  paper  curtains  covered 
the  windows  ;  the  floor  was  uncarpeted,  and  the  only  furniture 
in  the  room  was  some  strong  plain  chairs,  painted  yellow,  and 
a  Connecticut  clock,  which  did  not  run.  The  house  had 
evidently  been  built  for  a  family  of  some  wealth,  and,  after 
having  been  deserted  by  them,  had  been  bought  at  a  bargain 
by  the  present  resident,  who  either  had  not  the  capital  or  the 
inclination  to  furnish  and  occupy  it  appropriately. 

When  my  entertainer  called  again,  he  merely  opened  the 


VIRGINIA.  79 

door  and  said,  "  Come  !  get  something  to  eat !"  I  followed 
him  out  into  the  gallery,  and  thence  through  a  door  at  its  end 
into  a  room  in  the  wing — a  family  room,  and  a  very  com- 
fortable homely  room.  A  bountifully  spread  supper-table 
stood  in  the  centre,  at  which  was  sitting  a  very  neat,  pretty 
little  woman,  of  as  silent  habits  as  her  husband,  but  neither 
bashful  nor  morose.  A  very  nice  little  girl  sat  at  her  right 
side,  and  a  peevish,  ill-behaved,  whining  glutton  of  a  boy  at 
her  left.  I  was  requested  to  be  seated  adjoining  the  little 
girl,  and  the  master  of  the  house  sat  opposite  me.  The  fourth 
side  of  the  table  was  unoccupied,  though  a  plate  and  chair 
were  placed  there,  as  if  some  one  else  had  been  expected. 

The  two  negro  girls  waited  at  table,  and  a  negro  boy  was 
in  the  room,  who,  when  I  asked  for  a  glass  of  water,  was  sent 
to  get  it.  An  old  negro  woman  also  frequently  came  in  from 
the  kitchen,  with  hot  biscuit  and  corn-cake.  There  was  fried 
fowl,  and  fried  bacon  and  eggs,  and  cold  ham;  there  were 
preserved  peaches,  and  preserved  quinces  and  grapes ;  there 
was  hot  wheaten  biscuit,  and  hot  short-cake,  and  hot  corn- 
cake,  and  hot  griddle  cakes,  soaked  in  butter;  there  was 
coffee,  and  there  was  milk,  sour  or  sweet,  whichever  I  pre- 
ferred to  drink.  I  really  ate  more  than  I  wanted,  and  ex- 
tolled the  corn-cake  and  the  peach  preserve,  and  asked  how 
they  were  made ;  but  I  evidently  disappointed  my  pretty 
hostess,  who  said  she  was  afraid  there  wasn't  anything  that 
suited  me, — she  feared  there  wasn't  anything  on  the  table 
I  could  eat ;  and  she  was  sorry  I  couldn't  make  out  a  supper. 
And  this  was  about  all  she  would  say.  I  tried  to  get  a  conver- 
sation started,  but  could  obtain  little  more  than  very  laconic 
answers  to  my  questions. 

Except  from  the  little  girl  at  my  side,  whose  confidence  I 
gained  by  taking  an  opportunity,  when  her  mother  was 
engaged  with  young  Hopeful  t'other  side  the  coffee-pot,  to 


80  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

give  her  a  great  deal  of  quince  and  grape,  and  by  several 
times  pouring  molasses  very  freely  on  her  cakes  and  bacon ; 
and  finally  by  feeding  Pink  out  of  my  hand.  (Hopeful  had 
done  this  first,  and  then  kicked  him  away,  when  he  came 
round  to  Martha  and  me.)  She  told  me  her  name,  and  that 
she  had  got  a  kitten,  and  that  she  hated  Pink ;  and  that  she 
went  to  a  Sunday-school  at  the  Court  House,  and  that  she 
was  going  to  go  to  an  every-day  school  next  winter — she 
wasn't  big  enough  to  walk  so  far  now,  but  she  would  be  then. 
But  Billy  said  he  didn't  mean  to  go,  because  he  didn't  like  to, 
though  Billy  was  bigger  nor  she  was,  a  heap.  She  reckoned 
when  Billy  saw  Wash.  Baker  going  past  every  day,  and  heard 
how  much  fun  he  had  every  day  with  the  other  boys  at  the 
school,  he  would  want  to  go  too,  wouldn't  he  ?  etc.  etc. 
When  supper  was  ended,  I  set  back  my  chair  to  the  wall, 
and  took  her  on  my  knee ;  but  after  she  had  been  told  twice 
not  to  trouble  the  gentleman,  and  I  had  testified  that  she 
didn't  do  it,  and  after  several  mild  hints  that  I  would  perhaps 
find  it  pleasanter  in  the  sitting-room — (the  chairs  in  the 
supper-room  were  the  easiest,  being  country-made,  low,  and 
seated  with  undressed  calf-skin),  she  was  called  to,  out  of  the 
kitchen,  and  Mr.  Newman  said — going  to-  the  door  and 
opening  it  for  me — "Beckon  you'd  better  walk  into  the 
sittin'-room,  sir." 

I  walked  out  at  this,  and  said  I  would  go  and  look  at  the 
filly.  Mr.  Newman  called  "  Sam  "  again,  and  Sam,  having 
at  that  moment  arrived  at  the  kitchen  door,  was  ordered  to  go 
and  take  care  of  this  gentleman's  horse.  I  followed  Sam  to 
the  tobacco-house,  and  gave  him  to  know  that  he  would  be 
properly  remembered  for  any  attentions  he  could  give  to  Jane. 
He  watered  her,  and  brought  her  a  large  supply  of  oats  in 
straw,  and  some  maize  on  the  cob  ;  but  he  could  get  no  litter, 
and  declared  there  was  no  straw  on  the  plantation,  though 


VIRGINIA.  81 

the  next  morning  I  saw  a  large  quantity  in  a  heap  (not  a 
stack),  at  a  little  greater  distance  than  he  was  willing  to  go 
for  it,  I  suppose,  at  a  barn  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  road. 
Having  seen  her  rubbed  clean  and  apparently  well  contented 
with  her  quarters  and  her  supper,  I  bade  her  good-night,  and 
returned  to  the  house. 

I  did  not  venture  again  into  the  supper-room,  but  went  to 
the  sitting-room,  where  I  found  Miss  Martha  Ann  and  her 
kitten  ;  I  was  having  a  good  time  with  her,  when  her  father 
came  in  and  told  her  she  was  "  troubling  the  gentleman." 
I  denied  it,  and  he  took  a  seat  by  the  fire  with  us,  and  I  soon 
succeeded  in  drawing  him  into  a  conversation  on  farming,  and 
the  differences  in  our  methods  of  work  at  the  North  and  those 
he  was  accustomed  to. 

I  learned  that  there  were  no  white  labouring  men  here  who 
hired  themselves  out  by  the  month.  The  poor  white  people 
that  had  to  labour  for  their  living,  never  would  work  steadily 
at  any  employment.  "  They  generally  followed  boating" — 
hiring  as  hands  on  the  bateaus  that  navigate  the  small  streams 
and  canals,  but  never  for  a  longer  term  at  once  than  a  single 
trip  of  a  boat,  whether  that  might  be  long  or  short.  At  the 
end  of  the  trip  they  were  paid  by  the  day.  Their  wages 
were  from  fifty  cents  to  a  dollar,  varying  with  the  demand  and 
individual  capacities.  They  hardly  ever  worked  on  farms 
except  in  harvest,  when  they  usually  received  a  dollar  a  day, 
sometimes  more.  In  harvest-time,  most  of  the  rural  mecha- 
nics closed  their  shops  and  hired  out  to  the  farmers  at  a 
dollar  a  day,  which  would  indicate  that  their  ordinary  earn- 
ro  considerably  less  than  this.  At  other  than  harvest- 
time,  the  poor  white  people,  who  had  no  trade,  would 
i i nes  work  for  the  farmers  by  the  job;  not  often  any 
regular  agricultural  labour,  but  at  getting  rails  or  shingles, 
or  clearing  land. 

VOL.  i.  a 


82  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

He  did  not  know  that  they  were  particular  about  working 
with  negroes,  but  no  white  man  would  ever  do  certain  kinds 
of  work  (such  as  taking  care  of  cattle,  or  getting  water  or 
wood  to  be  used  in  the  house)  ;  and  if  you  should  ask  a  white 
man  you  had  hired,  to  do  such  things,  he  would  get  mad  and  tell 
you  he  wasn't  a  nigger.  Poor  white  girls  never  hired  out  to 
do  servants'  work,  but  they  would  come  and  help  another 
white  woman  about  her  sewing  and  quilting,  and  take  wages 
for  it.  But  these  girls  were  not  very  respectable  generally, 
and  it  was  not  agreeable  to  have  them  in  your  house,  though 
there  were  some  very  respectable  ladies  that  would  go  out  to 
sew.  Farmers  depended  almost  entirely  upon  their  negroes ;  it 
was  only  when  they  were  hard  pushed  by  their  crops,  that 
they  ever  got  white  hands  to  help  them. 

Negroes  had  commanded  such  high  wages  lately,  to  work 
on  railroads  and  in  tobacco-factories,  that  farmers  were  tempted 
to  hire  out  too  many  of  their  people,  and  to  undertake  to  do 
too  much  work  with  those  they  retained ;  and  thus  they  were 
often  driven  to  employ  white  men,  and  to  give  them  very  high 
wages  by  the  day,  when  they  found  themselves  getting  much 
behind-hand  with  their  crops.  He  had  been  driven  very  hard  in 
this  way  tin's  last  season ;  he  had  been  so  unfortunate  as  to  lose 
one  of  his  best  women,  who  died  in  child-bed  just  before  harvest. 
The  loss  of  the  woman  and  her  child,  for  the  child  had  died 
also,  just  at  that  time,  came  very  hard  upon  him.  He  would 
not  have  taken  a  thousand  dollars  of  any  man's  money  for  them. 
He  had  had  to  hire  white  men  to  help  him,  but  they  were  poor 
sticks,  and  would  be  half  the  time  drunk,  and  you  never  know 
what  to  depend  upon  with  them.  One  fellow  that  he  had 
hired,  who  had  agreed  to  work  for  him  all  through  harvest, 
got  him  to  pay  him  some  wages  in  advance  (he  said  it  was  to 
buy  him  some  clothes  with,  so  that  he  could  go  to  meeting  on 
Sunday,  at  the  Court  House),  and  went  off  the  next  day,  right 


VIRGINIA.  83 

in  the  middle  of  harvest,  and  he  had  never  seen  him  since.  He 
had  heard  of  him — he  was  on  a  hoat — but  he  didn't  reckon  he 
should  ever  get  his  money  again. 

Of  course,  he  did  not  see  how  white  labourers  were  ever  going 
to  come  into  competition  with  negroes  here,  at  all.    You  never 
could  depend  on  white  men,  and  you  couldn't  drive  them  any ; 
they  wouldn't  stand  it.    Slaves  were  the  only  reliable  labourers  ^ 
— you  could  command  them  and  make  them  do  what  was  right.  V 

From  the  manner  in  which  he  talked  of  the  white  labouring 
people,  it  was  evident  that,  although  he  placed  them  in  some 
sort  on  an  equality  with  himself,  and  that  in  his  intercourse 
with  them  he  wouldn't  think  of  asserting  for  himself  any 
superior  dignity,  or  even  feel  himself  to  be  patronizing  them 
in  not  doing  so,  yet  he,  all  the  time,  recognized  them  as  a 
distinct  and  a  rather  despicable  class,  and  wanted  to  have  as 
little  to  do  with  them  as  he  conveniently  could. 

I  have  been  once  or  twice  told  that  the  poor  white  people, 
meaning  those,  I  suppose,  who  bring  nothing  to  market  to 
exchange  for  money  but  their  labour,  although  they  may  own 
a  cabin  and  a  little  furniture,  and  cultivate  land  enough  to 
supply  themselves  with  (maize)  bread,  are  worse  off  in  almost 
all  respects  than  the  slaves.  They  are  said  to  be  extremely 
ignorant  and  immoral,  as  well  as  indolent  and  unambitious. 
That  their  condition  is  not  so  unfortunate  by  any  means  as 
that  of  negroes,  however,  is  most  obvious,  since  from  among 
them,  men  sometimes  elevate  themselves  to  positions  and 
hubits  of  usefulness,  and  respectability.  They  are  said  to 
"  corrupt"  the  negroes,  and  to  encourage  them  to  steal,  or  to 
work  for  them  at  night  and  on  Sundays,  and  to  pay  them  with 
liquor,  and  also  to  constantly  associate  licentiously  with  them. 
They  seem,  nevertheless,  more  than  any  other  portion  of  the 
commuuity,  to  hate  and  despise  the  negroes. 

In  the  midst  of  our  conversation,  one  of  the  black  girls  had 

G  2 


84  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

come  into  the  room  and  stood  still  with  her  head  dropped  for- 
ward, staring  at  me  from  under  her  brows,  without  saying  a 
word.  When  she  had  waited,  in  this  way,  perhaps  two  minutes, 
her  master  turned  to  her  and  asked  what  she  wanted. 
"  Miss  Matty  says  Marta  Ann  go  to  bed  now." 
But  Martha  Ann  refused  to  budge  ;  after  being  told  once  or 
twice  by  her  father  to  go  with  Eose,  she  came  to  me  and  lifted 
up  her  hands,  I  supposed  to  kiss  me  and  go,  but  when  I 
reached  down,  she  took  hold  of  my  shoulders  and  climbed  up 
on  to  my  knees.  Her  father  seemed  to  take  no  notice  of  this 
proceeding,  but  continued  talking  about  guano ;  Hose  went  to 
a  corner  of  the  fire-place,  dropped  down  upon  the  floor,  and 
TO^sently  was  asleep,  leaning  her  head  against  the  wall.  In 
'  about  half  an  hour  the  other  negro  girl  came  to  the  door, 
when  Mr.  Newman  abruptly  called  out,  "  Girl !  take  that  child 
to  bed  !"  and  immediately  got  up  himself  and  walked  out. 
Eose  roused  herself,  and  lifted  Martha  Ann  out  of  my  arms, 
and  carried  her  off  fast  asleep.  Mr.  Newman  returned  hold- 
ing a  small  candle,  and,  without  entering  the  room,  stood  at 
the  door  and  said,  "  I'll  show  you  your  bed  if  you  are  ready, 
sir."  As  he  evidently  meant,  "  I  am  ready  to  show  you  to 
bed  if  you  will  not  refuse  to  go,"  I  followed  him  up  stairs. 

Into  a  large  room,  again,  with  six  windows,  with  a  fire- 
place, in  which  a  few  brands  were  smoking,  with  some  wool 
spread  thinly  upon  the  floor  in  a  corner ;  with  a  dozen  small 
bundles  of  tobacco  leaves ;  with  a  lady's  saddle ;  with  a  deep 
feather-bed,  covered  with  a  bright  patch-work  quilt,  on  a 
maple  bedstead,  and  without  a  single  item  of  any  other  furni- 
ture whatever.  Mr.  Newman  asked  if  I  wanted  the  candle  to 
undress  by ;  I  said  yes,  if  he  pleased,  and  waited  a.  moment  for 
him  to  set  it  down :  as  he  did  not  do  so,  I  walked  towards 
him,  lifting  my  hand  to  take  it.  "  No — I'll  hold  it,"  said  he, 
and  I  then  perceived  that  he  had  no  candlestick,  but  held 


VIRGINIA.  85 

the  lean  little  dip  in  his  hand :  I  remembered  also  that  no 
candle  had  been  brought  into  the  "  sitting-room,"  and  that 
while  we  were  at  supper  only  one  candle  had  stood  upon  the 
table,  which  had  been  immediately  extinguished  when  we 
rose,  the  room  being  lighted  only  from  the  fire. 

I  very  quickly  undressed  and  hung  my  clothes  upon  a  bed- 
post :  Mr.  Newman  looked  on  in  silence  until  I  had  got  into 
bed,  when,  with  an  abrupt  "  Good-night,  sir,"  he  went  out  and 
shut  the  door. 

It  was  not  until  after  I  had  consulted  Sam  the  next  morning 
that  I  ventured  to  consider  that  my  entertainment  might  be 
taken  as  a  mere  business  transaction,  and  not  as  "  genuine 
planter's  hospitality,"  though  this  had  become  rather  a  ridi- 
culous view  of  it,  after  a  repetition  of  the  supper,  in  all 
respects,  had  been  eaten  for  breakfast,  with  equal  moroseness 
on  the  part  of  my  host  and  equal  quietness  on  the  part  of  his 
kind-looking  little  wife.  I  was,  nevertheless,  amused  at  the 
promptness  with  which  he  replied  to  my  rather  hesitating 
inquiry — what  I  might  pay  him  for  the  trouble  I  had  given 
him — "  I  reckon  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  will  be  right,  sir." 

I  have  described,  perhaps  with  tedious  prolixity,  what 
adventures  befell  me,  and  what  scenes  I  passed  through  in  my 
first  day's  random  riding,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  an  idea  of 
the  uncultivated  and  unimproved — rather,  sadly  worn  and 
misused — condition  of  some  parts,  and  I  judge,  of  a  very  large 
part,  of  all  Eastern  Virginia,  and  of  the  isolated,  lonely,  and 
dissociable  aspect  of  the  dwelling-places  of  a  large  pail  of  the 
people.  I  subsequently  rode  for  three  weeks  in  Eastern  and 
Central  Virginia,  the  country  differing  not  very  greatly  in  its 
characteristics  from  that  here  described. 

Much  the  same  general  characteristics  pervade  the  Slave 
States,  everywhere,  except  in  certain  rich  regions,  or  on  the 


86  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

banks  of  some  rivers,  or  in  the  vicinity  of  some  great  routes 
of  travel  and  transportation,  which  have  occasioned  closer 
settlement  or  stimulated  public  spirit.  For  hours  and  hours 
one  has  to  ride  through  the  unlimited,  continual,  all-shadow- 
ing, all-embracing  forest,  following  roads,  in  the  making  of 
which  no  more  labour  has  been  given  than  was  necessary  to 
remove  the  timber  which  would  obstruct  the  passage  of  wag- 
gons ;  and  even  for  days  and  days  he  may  sometimes  travel, 
and  see  never  two  dwellings  of  mankind  within  sight  of  each 
other ;  only,  at  long  distances,  often  several  miles  asunder, 
these  isolated  plantation  patriarchates.  If  a  traveller  leaves 
the  main  road  to  go  any  distance,  it  is  not  to  be  imagined 
how  difficult  it  is  for  him  to  find  his  way  from  one  house  to 
any  other  in  particular ;  his  only  safety  is  in  the  fact  that, 
unless  there  are  mountains  or  swamps  in  the  way,  he  is  not 
likely  to  go  many  miles  upon  any  waggon  or  horse  track 
without  coming  to  some  white  man's  habitation. 

The  country  passed  through,  in  the  early  part  of  my 
second  day's  ride,  was  very  similar  in  general  characteristics 
to  that  I  have  already  described  ;  only  that  a  rather  larger 
portion  of  it  was  cleared,  and  plantations  were  more  frequent. 
About  eleven  o'clock  I  crossed  a  bridge  and  came  to  the 
meeting-house  I  had  been  expecting  to  reach  by  that  hour 
the  previous  day.  It  was  in  the  midst  of  the  woods,  and  the 
small  clearing  around  it  was  still  dotted  with  the  stumps  of 
the  trees  out  of  whose  trunks  it  had  been  built ;  for  it  was  a 
log  structure.  In  one  end  there  was  a  single  square  port, 
closed  by  a  sliding  shutter ;  in  the  other  end  were  two  doors, 
both  standing  open.  In  front  of  the  doors,  a  rude  scaffolding 
had  been  made  of  poles  and  saplings,  extending  out  twenty 
feet  from  the  wall  of  the  house,  and  this  had  been  covered 
with  boughs  of  trees,  the  leaves  now  withered  ;  a  few  benches, 


VIRGINIA.  87 

made  of  split  trunks  of  trees  slightly  hewn  with  the  axe, 
were  arranged  under  this  arbour,  as  .if  the  religious  service 
was  sometimes  conducted  on  the  outside  in  preference  to  the 
interior  of  the  edifice.  Looking  in,  I  saw  that  a  gallery  or 
loft  extended  from  over  the  doors,  across  about  one-third  the 
length  of  the  house,  access  to  which  was  had  by  a  ladder. 
At  the  opposite  end  was  a  square  unpainted  pulpit,  and  on 
the  floor  were  rows  of  rude  benches.  The  house  was  suffi- 
ciently lighted  by  crevices  between  the  upper  logs. 

Half  an  hour  after  this  I  arrived  at  the  negro-quarters — a  ^ 
little  hamlet  of  ten  or  twelve  small  and  dilapidated  cabins. 
Just  beyond  them  was  a  plain  farm-gate,  at  which  several  > 
negroes  were  standing  :  one  of  them,  a  well-made  man,  with' 
an  intelligent  countenance  and  prompt  manner,  directed  me 
how  to  find  my  way  to  his  owner's  house.  It  was  still  nearly 
a  mile  distant;  and  yet,  until  I  arrived  in  its  immediate 
vicinity,  I  saw  no  cultivated  field,  and  but  one  clearing.  In 
the  edge  of  this  clearing,  a  number  of  negroes,  male  and 
female,  lay  stretched  out  upon  the  .ground  near  a  small 
smoking  charcoal  pit.  Their  master  afterwards  informed  me 
that  they  were  burning  charcoal  for  the  plantation  blacksmith, 
using  the  time  allowed  them  for  holidays — from  Christmas  to 
New  Year's  Day — to  earn  a  little  money  for  themselves  in  this 
way.  He  paid  them  by  the  bushel  for  it.  When  I  said  that 
I  supposed  he  allowed  them  to  take  what  wood  they  chose  for 
this  purpose,  he  replied  that  he  had  five  hundred  acres 
covered  with  wood,  which  he  would  be  very  glad  to  have  any 
one  burn,  or  clear  off  in  any  way. 

Mr.  W.'s  house  was  an  old  family  mansion,  which  he  had 
himself  remodelled  "  in  the  Grecian  style,"  and  furnished 
with  a  large  wooden  portico.  An  oak  forest  had  originally 
occupied  the  ground  where  it  stood ;  but  this  having  been 
ckared  and  the  soil  worn  out  in  cultivation  by  the  previous 


88  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

proprietors,  pine  woods  now  surrounded  it  in  every  direction, 
a  square  of  a  few  acres  only  being  kept  clear  immediately 
about  it.  A  number  of  the  old  oaks  still  stood  in  the  rear  of 
the  house,  and,  until  Mr.  W.  commenced  "  his  improve- 
ments," there  had  been  some  in  its  front.  But  as  he  deemed 
these  to  have  an  aspect  of  negligence  and  rudeness,  not  quite 
proper  to  be  associated  with  a  fine  house,  he  had  cut  them 
away,  and  substituted  formal  rows  of  miserable  little  ailanthus 
trees.  I  could  not  believe  my  ears  till  this  explanation  had 
been  twice  repeated  to  me. 

On  three  sides  of  the  outer  part  of  the  cleared  square, 
which  was  called  "  the  lawn,"  but  which  was  no  more  like  a 
lawn  than  it  was  like  a  sea-beach,  there  was  a  row  of  negro- 
cabins,  stables,  tobacco-houses,  and  other  offices,  all  built  of 
rough  logs. 

Mr.  W.  was  one  of  the  few  large  planters  of  his  vicinity 
who  still  made  the  culture  of  tobacco  their  principal  business. 
He  said  there  was  a  general  prejudice  against  tobacco,  in  all 
the  tide- water  region  of  the  State,  because  it  was  through  the 
culture  of  tobacco  that  the  once  fertile  soils  had  been  im- 
poverished ;  but  he  did  not  believe  that,  at  the  present  value 
of  negroes,  their  labour  could  be  applied  to  the  culture  of 
grain,  with  any  profit,  except  under  peculiarly  favourable  cir- 
cumstances. Possibly,  the  use  of  guano  might  make  wheat 
a  paying  crop,  but  he  still  doubted.  He  had  not  used  it, 
himself.  Tobacco  required  fresh  land,  and  was  rapidly  ex- 
hausting, but  it  returned  more  money,  for  the  labour  used 
upon  it,  than  anything  else ;  enough  more,  in  his  opinion, 
to  pay  for  the  wearing  out  of  the  land.  If  he  was  well  paid 
for  it,  he  did  not  know  why  he  should  not  wear  out  his  land. 

His  tobacco-fields  were  nearly  all  in  a  distant  and  lower 
part  of  his  plantation ;  land  which  had  been  neglected  before 
his  time,  in  a  great  measure,  because  it  had  been  sometimes 


VIRGINIA.  89 

flooded,  and  was,  much  of  the  year,  too  wet  for  cultivation. 
He  was  draining  and  clearing  it,  and  it  now  brought  good  crops. 

He  had  had  an  Irish  gang  draining  for  him,  by  contract. 
He  thought  a  negro  could  do  twice  as  much  work,  in  a  day, 
as  an  Irishman.  He  had  not  stood  over  them  and  seen  them 
at  work,  but  judged  entirely  from  the  amount  they  accom- 
plished :  he  thought  a  good  gang  of  negroes  would  have  got 
on  twice  as  fast.  He  was  sure  they  must  have  "  trifled  "  a 
great  deal,  or  they  would  have  accomplished  more  than  they 
had.  He  complained  much,  also,  of  their  sprees  and  quarrels. 
I  asked  why  he  should  employ  Irishmen,  in  preference  to 
doing  the  work  with  his  own  hands.  "  It's  dangerous  work 
[unhealthy  ?],  and  a  negro's  life  is  too  valuable  to  be  risked 
at  it.  If  a  negro  dies,  it's  a  considerable  loss,  you  know." 

He  afterwards  said  that  his  negroes  never  worked  so  hard 
as  to  tire  themselves — always  were  lively,  and  ready  to  go  off 
on  a  frolic  at  night.  He  did  not  think  they  ever  did-  half  a 
iair  day's  work.  They  could  not  be  made  to  work  hard  :  they 
never  would  lay  out  their  strength  freely,  and  it  was  impossible 
to  make  them  do  it. 

This  is  just  what  I  have  thought  when  I  have  seen  slaves 
at  work — they  seem  to  go  through  the  motions  of  labour 
without  putting  strength  into  them.  They  keep  their  powers 
in  reserve  for  thejr  own  use  at  night,  perhaps. 

Mr.  W.  also  said  that  he  cultivated  only  the  ctoarser  and 
lower-priced  sorts  of  tobacco,  because  the  finer  sorts  required 
more  painstaking  and  discretion  than  it  was  possible  to  make 
a  large  gang  of  negroes  use.  "  You  can  make  a  nigger  work," 
he  said,  "  but  you  cannot  make  bim  think." 

Although  Mr.  W.  was  so  wealthy  (or,  at  least,  would  be 
considered  anywhere  at  the  North),  and  had  been  at  college, 
his  style  of  living  was  very  farmer-like,  and  thoroughly 
Southern.  On  their  plantations,  generally,  the  Virginia  gen- 


90  COTTON   AND    SLAYEBY. 

tlemen  seem  to  drop  their  full  dress  and  constrained  town 
habits,  and  to  live  a  free,  rustic,  shooting-jacket  life.  We 
dined  in  a  room  that  extended  out,  rearwardly,  from  the 
house,  and  which,  in  a  Northern  establishment,  would  have 
been  the  kitchen.  The  cooking  was  done  in  a  detached  log- 
cabin,  and  the  dishes  brought  some  distance,  through  the  open 
air,  by  the  servants.  The  outer  door  was  left  constantly  open, 
though  there  was  a  fire  in  an  enormous  old  fire-place,  large 
enough,  if  it  could  have  been  distributed  sufficiently,  to  have 
lasted  a  New  York  seamstress  the  best  part  of  the  winter. 
By  the  door  there  was  indiscriminate  admittance  to  negro 
children  and  fox-hounds,  and,  on  an  average,  there  were  four 
of  these,  grinning  or  licking  their  chops,  on  either  side  of 
my  chair,  all  the  time  I  was  at  the  table.  A  stout  woman 
acted  as  head  waitress,  employing  two  handsome  little  mulatto 
boys  as  her  aids  in  communicating  with  the  kitchen,  from 
which  relays  of  hot  corn-bread,  of  an  excellence  quite  new  to 
me,  were  brought  at  frequent  intervals.  There  was  no  other 
bread,  and  but  one  vegetable  served — sweet  potato,  roasted  in 
ashes,  and  this,  I  thought,  was  the  best  sweet  potato,  also, 
that  I  ever  had  eaten  ;  but  there  were  four  preparations  of 
swine's  flesh,  besides  fried  fowls,  fried  eggs,  cold  roast  turkey, 
and  opossum,  cooked,  I  know  not  how,  but  it  somewhat 
resembled  baked  sucking-pig.  The  only  beverages  on  the 
table  were  milk  and  whisky. 

I  was  pressed  to  stay  several  days  with  Mr.  W.,  and  should 
have  been  glad  to  do  so,  had  not  another  engagement  pre- 
vented. When  I  was  about  to  leave,  an  old  servant  was 
directed  to  get  a  horse,  and  go  with  me,  as  guide,  to  the 
railroad  station  at  Col.  Gillin's.  He  followed  behind  me,  and 
I  had  great  difficulty  in  inducing  him  to  ride  near  enough  to 
converse  with  me.  I  wished  to  ascertain  from  him  how  old 
the  different  stages  of  the  old-field  forest-growth,  by  the  side 


VIRGINIA.  91 

of  our  road,  might  be ;  but  for  a  long  time,  he  was,  or  pre- 
tended to  be,  unable  to  comprehend  my  questions.  When  he 
did  so,  the  most  accurate  information  he  could  give  me  was, 
that  he  reckoned  such  a  field  (in  which  the  pines  were  now 
some  sixty  feet  high)  had  been  planted  with  tobacco  the 
year  his  old  master  bought  him.  He  thought  he  was  about 
twenty  years  old  then,  and  that  now  he  was  forty.  He  had 
every  appearance  of  l^eing  seventy. 

He  frequently  told  me  there  was  no  need  for  him  to  go 
any  further,  and  that  it  was  a  dead  straight  road  to  the 
station,  without  any  forks.  As  he  appeared  very  eager  to 
return,  I  was  at  length  foolish  enough  to  allow  myself  to  be 
prevailed  upon  to  dispense  with  his  guidance ;  gave  him  a 
quarter  of  a  dollar  for  his  time  that  I  had  employed,  and 
went  on  alone.  The  road,  which  for  a  short  distance  further 
was  plain  enough,  soon  began  to  ramify,  and,  in  half  an  hour, 
we  were  stumbling  along  a  dark  wood-path,  looking  eagerly 
for  a  house.  At  length,  seeing  one  across  a  large  clearing, 
we  went  through  a  long  lane,  opening  gates  and  letting  down 
bars,  until  we  met  two  negroes,  riding  a  mule,  who  were 
going  to  the  plantation  near  the  school-house  which  we  had 
seen  the  day  before.  Following  them  thither,  we  knew  the 
rest  of  the  way  (Jane  gave  a  bound  and  neighed,  when  we 
struck  the  old  road,  showing  that  she  had  been  lost,  as  well 
as  I,  up  to  the  moment). 

It  was  twenty  minutes  after  the  hour  given  in  the  time- 
table for  the  passage  of  the  train,  when  I  reached  the  station, 
but  it  had  not  arrived ;  nor  did  it  make  its  appearance  for  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  longer  ;  so  I  had  plenty  of  time  to  deliver 
Tom's  wife's  message  and  take  leave  of  Jane.  I  am  sorry  to 
say  she  appeared  very  indifferent,  and  seemed  to  think  a 
good  deal  more  of  Tom  than  of  me.  Mr.  W.  had  told  me 
that  the  train  would,  probably,  be  half  an  hour  behind  its  advcr- 


92  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

tised  time,  and  that  I  had  no  need  to  ride  with  haste,  to 
reach  it.  I  asked  Col.  Grillin  if  it  would  be  safe  to  always 
calculate  on  the  train  being  half  an  hour  late :  he  said  it 
would  not ;  for,  although  usually  that  much  behind  the  time- 
table, it  was  sometimes  half  an  hour  ahead  of  it.  So  those, 
who  would  be  safe,  had  commonly  to  wait  an  hour.  People, 
therefore,  who  wished  to  go  not  more  than  twenty  miles  from 
home,  would  find  it  more  convenient,  and  equally  expeditious, 
taking  all  things  into  account,  to  go  in  their  own  convey- 
ances— there  being  but  few  who  lived  so  near  the  station 
that  they  would  not  have  to  employ  a  horse  and  servant  to 
get  to  it. 

. .  I  have  been  visiting  a  farm,  culti- 
vated entirely  by  free  labour.  The  proprietor  told  me  that 
lie  was  first  led  to  disuse  slave-labour,  not  from  any  econo- 
mical considerations,  but  because  he  had  become  convinced 
that  there  was  an  essential  wrong  in  holding  men  in  forced 
servitude  with  any  other  purpose  than  to  benefit  them  alone, 
and  because  he  was  not  willing  to  allow  his  own  children  to 
be  educated  as  slave-masters.  His  father  had  been  a  large 
slaveholder,  and  he  felt  very  strongly  the  bad  influence  it 
had  had  on  his  own  character.  He  wished  me  to  be  satisfied 
that  Jefferson  uttered  a  great  truth  when  he  asserted  that 
slavery  was  more  pernicious  to  the  white  race  than  the  black. 
Although,  therefore,  a  chief  part  of  his  inheritance  had  been 
in  slaves,  he  had  liberated  them  all. 

Most  of  them  had,  by  his  advice,  gone  to  Africa.  These 
he  had  frequently  heard  from.  Except  a  child  that  had  been 
drowned,  they  were,  at  his  last  account,  all  alive,  in  general 
good  health,  and  satisfactorily  prospering.  He  had  lately 
received  a  letter  from  one  of  them,  who  told  him  that  he  was 
"  trying  to  preach  the  Gospel,"  and  who  had  evidently 


VIRGINIA.  9  3 

greatly  improved,  both  intellectually  and  morally,  since  he  left 
here.  With  regard  to  those  going  North,  and  the  common 
opinion  that  they  encountered  much  misery,  and  would  be 
much  better  off  here,  he  said  that  it  entirely  depended  on  the 
general  character  and  habits  of  the  individual :  it  was  true  of 
those  who  were  badly  brought  up,  and  who  had  acquired  ^ 
indolent  and  vicious  habits,  especially  if  they  were  drunkards, 
but,  if  of  some  intelligence  and  well  trained,  they  generally 
represented  themselves  to  be  successful  and  contented.  f 

He  mentioned  two  remarkable  cases,  that  had  come  under 
his  own  observation,  of  this  kind.  One  was  that  of  a  man 
who  had  been  free,  but,  by  some  fraud  and  informality  of  his 
papers,  was  re-enslaved.  He  ran  away,  and  afterwards 
negotiated,  by  correspondence,  with  his  master,  and  purchased 
his  freedom.  This  man  he  had  accidentally  met,  fifteen  v1 
years  afterwards,  in  a  Northern  city ;  he  was  engaged  in  * 
profitable  and  increasing  business,  and  showed  him,  by  his 
books,  that  he  was  possessed  of  property  to  the  amount  of  f 
ten  thousand  dollars.  He  was  living  a  great  deal  more 
comfortably  and  wisely  than  ever  his  old  master  had  done. 
The  other  case  was  that  of  a  coloured  woman,  who  had 
obtained  her  freedom,  and  who  became  apprehensive  that  she 
also  was  about  to  be  fraudulently  made  a  slave  again.  She 
fled  to  Philadelphia,  where  she  was  nearly  starved,  at  first. 
A  little  girl,  who  heard  her  begging  in  the  streets  to  be 
allowed  to  work  for  bread,  told  her  that  her  mother  was 
wanting  some  washing  done,  and  she  followed  her  home. 
The  mother,  not  knowing  her,  was  afraid  to  trust  her  with 
the  articles  to  be  washed.  She  prayed  so  earnestly  for  the 
job,  however — suggesting  that  she  might  be  locked  into  a 
room  until  she  had  completed  it — that  it  was  given  her. 

So  she  commenced  life  in  Philadelphia.     Ten  years  after- 
wiirds  he  had  accidentally^  met  her  there ;  she  recognized  him 


94  COTTON   AND   SLAVEBY. 

^immediately,  recalled  herself  to  his  recollection,  manifested 
the  greatest  joy  at  seeing  him,  and  asked  him  to  com-e  to  her 
house,  which  he  found  a  handsome  three-story  huilding, 
furnished  really  with  elegance  ;  and  she  pointed  out  to  him, 
from  the  window,  three  houses  in  the  vicinity  that  she  owned 
and  rented.  She  showed  great  anxiety  to  have  her  children 
well  educated,  and  was  employing  the  best  instructors  for 
them  which  she  could  procure  in  Philadelphia. 

He  considered  the  condition  of  slaves  to  have  much  im- 
proved since  the  Bevolution,  and  very  perceptibly  during  the 
last  twenty  years.  The  original  stock  of  slaves,  the  imported 
Africans,  he  observed,  probably  required  to  be  governed  with 
much  greater  severity,  and  very  little  humanity  was  exercised 
or  thought  of  with  regard  to  them.  The  slaves  of  the  present 
day  are  of  a  higher  character ;  in  fact,  he  did  not  think  more 
than  half  of  them  were  full-blooded  Africans.  Public  senti- 
ment condemned  the  man  who  treated  his  slaves  with  cruelty. 
The  owners  were  mainly  men  of  some  cultivation,  and  felt  a 
family  attachment  to  their  slaves,  many  of  whom  had  been 
the  playmates  of  their  boyhood.  Nevertheless,  they  were 
frequently  punished  severely,  under  the  impulse  of  temporary 
passion,  often  without  deliberation,  and  on  unfounded  sus- 
picion. This  was  especially  the  case  where  they  were  left  to 
overseers,  who,  though  sometimes  men  of  intelligence  and 
piety,  were  more  often  coarse,  brutal,  and  licentious  ;  drinking 
men,  wholly  unfitted  for  the  responsibility  imposed  on  them. 

With  regard  to  the  value  of  slave-labour,  this  gentleman  is 
confident  that,  at  present,  he  has  the  advantage  in  employing 
free  men  instead  of  it.  It  has  not  been  so  until  of  late,  the 
price  of  slaves  having  much  advanced  within  ten  years,  while 
immigration  has  made  free  white  labourers  more  easy  to  be 
procured. 

He  has  heretofore  had  some  difficulty  in  obtaining  hands 


VIRGINIA.  95 

when  he  needed  them,  and  has  suffered  a  good  deal  from  the 
demoralizing  influence  of  adjacent  slave-labour,  the  men,  after 
a  few  months'  residence,  inclining  to  follow  the  customs  of  the 
slaves  with  regard  to  the  amount  of  work  they  should  do  in  a 
day,  or  their  careless  mode  of  operation.  He  has  had  white 
and  black  Virginians,  sometimes  Germans,  and  latterly  Irish. 
Of  all  these,  he  has  found  the  Irish  on  the  whole  the  best. 
^The  poorest  have  been  the  native  white  Virginians  ;  next,  the 
free  blacks :  and  though  there  have  been  exceptions,  he  has 
not  generally  paid  thase  as  high  as  one  hundred  dollars  a 
year,  and  has  thought  them  less  worth  their  wages  than  any 
he  has  had.  At  present,  he  has  two  white  natives  and  two 
free  coloured  men,  but  both  the  latter  were  brought  up  in  his 
family,  and  are  worth  twenty  dollars  a  year  more  than  the 
average.  The  free  black,  he  thinks,  is  generally  worse  than 
the  slave,  and  so  is  the  poor  white  man.  He  also  employs,  at 
present,  four  Irish  hands,  and  is  expecting  two  more  to  arrive, 
who  have  been  recommended  to  him,  and  sent  for  by  those  he 
lias.  He  pays  the  Irishmen  g  120  a  year,  and  boards  them. 
He  has  had  them  for  glOO;  but  these  are  all  excellent 
men,  and  well  worth  their  price.  They  are  less  given  to 
drinking  than  any  men  he  has  ever  had ;  and  one  of  them 
first  suggested  improvements  to  him  in  his  farm,  that 
he  is  now  carrying  out  with  prospects  of  considerable  ad- 
vantage. Housemaids,  Irish  girls,  he  pays  g  3  and  g  6  a 
month. 

He  does  not  apprehend  that  in  future  he  shall  have  any 
difficulty  in  obtaining  steady  men,  who  will  accomplish  much 
more  work  than  any  slaves.  There  are  some  operations,  such 
as  carting  and  spreading  dung,  and  all  work  with  the  fork, 
spade,  or  shovel,  at  which  his  Irishmen  will  do,  lie  thinks, 
over  fifty  per  cent,  more  in  a  day  than  any  negroes  he  has 
ever  known.  On  the  whole,  he  is  satisfied  that  at  present 


9G  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

free-labour  is  more  profitable  than  slave-labour,  though  his 
success  is  not  so  evident  that  he  would  be  willing  to  have 
attention  particularly  called  to  it.  His  farm,  moreover,  is 
now  in  a  transition  state  from  one  system  of  husbandry  to 
another,  and  appearances  are  temporarily  more  unfavourable 
on  that  account. 

The  wages  paid  for  slaves,  when  they  are  hired  for  agri- 
cultural labour,  do  not  differ  at  present,  he  says,  from  those 
which  he  pays  for  his  free  labourers.  In  both  cases  the 
hiring  party  boards  the  labourer,  but,  in  addition  to  money 
and  board,  the  slave-employer  has  to  furnish  clothing,  and  is 
subject,  without  redress,  to  any  losses  which  may  result  from 
the  carelessness  or  malevolence  of  the  slave.  He  also  has  to 
lose  his  time  if  he  is  unwell,  or  when  from  any  cause  he  is 
absent  or  unable  to  work. 

The  slave,  if  he  is  indisposed  to  work,  and  especially  if  he 
is  not  treated  well,  or  does  not  like  the  master  who  has  hired 
him,  will  sham  sickness — even  make  himself  sick  or  lame — 
that  he  need  not  work.  But  a  more  serious  loss  frequently 
arises,  when  the  slave,  thinking  he  is  worked  too  hard,  or 
being  angered  by  punishment  or  unkind  treatment,  "  getting 
the  sulks,"  takes  to  "  the  swamp,"  and  comes  back  when  he 
has  a  mind  to.  Often  this  will  not  be  till  the  year  is  up  for 
which  he  is  engaged,  when  he  will  return  to  his  owner,  who, 
glad  to  find  his  property  safe,  and  that  it  has  not  died  in  the 
swamp,  or  gone  to  Canada,  forgets  to  punish  him,  and  imme- 
diately sends  him  for  another  year  to  a  new  master. 

"  But,  meanwhile,  how  does  the  negro  support  life  in  the 
swamp  ?"  I  asked. 

"  Oh,  he  gets  sheep  and  pigs  and  calves,  and  fowls  and 
turkeys ;  sometimes  they  will  kill  a  small  cow.  We  have 
often  seen  the  fires,  where  they  were  cooking  them,  through 
the  woods,  in  the  swamp  yonder.  If  it  is  cold,  he  will  crawl 


•      VIRGINIA.  97 

under  a  fodder-stack,  or  go  into  the  cabins  with  some  of  the 
other  negroes,  and  in  the  same  way,  you  see,  he  can  get  all 
the  corn,  or  almost  anything  else  he  wants. 

"  He  steals  them  from  his  master  ?" 

"  From  any  one ;  frequently  from  me.  I  have  had  many 
a  sheep  taken  by  them." 

"  It  is  a  common  thing,  then  ?" 

"  Certainly,  it  is,  very  common,  and  the  loss  is  sometimes 
exceedingly  provoking.  One  of  my  neighbours  here  was 
going  to  build,  and  hired  two  mechanics  for  a  year.  Just  as 
he  was  ready  to  put  his  house  up,  the  two  men,  taking  offence 
at%something,  both  ran  away,  and  did  not  come  back  at  all 
till  their  year  was  out,  and  then  their  owner  immediately 
hired  them  out  again  to  another  man." 

These  negroes  "  in  the  swamp,"  he  said,  were  often  hunted 
after,  but  it  was  very  difficult  to  find  them,  and,  if  caught, 
they  would  run  again,  and  the  other  negroes  would  hide  and 
assist  them.  Dogs  to  track  them  he  had  never  known  to  be 
used  in  Virginia. 

Saturday,  Dec.  25th. — From  Christmas  to  New- Year's 
Day,  most  of  the  slaves,  except  house  servants,  enjoy  a 
freedom  from  labour ;  and  Christmas  is  especially  holiday,  or 
Saturnalia,  with  them.  The  young  ones  began  last  night 
firing  crackers,  and  I  do  not  observe  that  they  are  engaged  in 
any  other  amusement  to-day ;  the  older  ones  are  generally 
getting  drunk,  and  making  business  for  the  police.  I  have  seen 
large  gangs  coming  in  from  the  country,  and  these  contrast 
much  in  their  general  appearance  with  the  town  negroes.  The 
latter  are  dressed  expensively,  and  frequently  more  elegantly 
than  the  whites.  They  seem  to  be  spending  money  freely,  and 
I  observe  that  they,  and  even  the  slaves  that  wait  upon  me  at 
the  hotel,  often  have  watches,  and  other  articles  of  value. 

TOI  .  i.  H 


98  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

The  slaves  have  a  good  many  ways  of  obtaining  "  spending 
money,"  which  though  in  law  belonging  to  their  owner,  as 
the  property  of  a  son  under  age  does  to  his  father,  they  are 
never  dispossessed  of,  and  use  for  their  own  gratification,  with 
even  less  restraint  than  a  wholesome  regard  for  their  health 
and  moral  condition  may  be  thought  to  require.  A  Kich- 
mond  paper,  complaining  of  the  liberty  allowed  to  slaves  in 
this  respect,  as  calculated  to  foster  an  insubordinate  spirit, 
speaks  of  their  "  champagne  suppers."  The  police  broke 
into  a  gambling  cellar  a  few  nights  since,  and  found  about 
twenty  negroes  at  "  high  play,"  with  all  the  usual  accessories 
of  a  first-class  "  Hell."  It  is  mentioned  that,  among  the 
number  taken  to  the  watch-house,  and  treated  with  lashes 
the  next  morning,  there  were  some  who  had  previously  en- 
joyed a  high  reputation  for  piety,  and  others  of  a  very  elegant 
or  foppish  appearance. 

Passing  two  negroes  in  the  street,  I  heard  the  following : 

" Workin'  in  a  tobacco  factory  all  de  year  roun',  an' 

come  Christmas  only  twenty  dollars  !  Workin'  mighty  hard, 
too — up  to  twelve  o'clock  o'  night  very  often — an'  then-  to 
hab  a  nigger  oberseah  !" 

"  A  nigger !" 

"  Yes — dat's  it,  yer  see.  Wouldn't  care  if  'twarn't  for  dat. 
Nothin'  but  a  dirty  nigger  !  orderin'  'round,  jes'  as  if  he  was 
a  wite  man !" 

It  is  the  custom  of  tobacco  manufacturers  to  hire  slaves 
and  free  negroes  at  a  certain  rate  of  wages  per  year.  A  task 
of  45  Ibs.  per  day  is  given  them  to  work  up,  and  all  that  they 
choose  to  do  more  than  this  they  are  paid  for — pavment 
being  made  once  a  fortnight ;  and  invariably  this  over-wages 
is  used  by  the  slave  for  himself,  and  is  usually  spent  in 
drinking,  licentiousness,  and  gambling.  The  man  was  grumb- 
ling that  he  had  saved  but  $20  to  suend  at  the  holidays. 


VIRGINIA.  99 

Sitting  with  a  company  of  smokers  last  night,  one  of  them, 
to  show  me  the  manner  in  which  a  slave  of  any  ingenuity  or 
cunning  would  manage  to  avoid  working  for  his  master's 
profit,  narrated  the  following  anecdote.  He  was  executor  of 
an  estate  in  which,  among  other  negroes,  there  was  one  very 
smart  man,  who,  he  knew  perfectly  well,  ought  to  be  earning 
for  the  estate  g  150  a  year,  and  who  could  do  it  if  he  chose, 
yet  whose  wages  for  a  year,  being  let  out  by  the  day  or 
job,  had  amounted  to  but  $18,  while  he  had  paid  for  medi- 
cal attendance  upon  him  45.  Having  failed  in  every 
other  way  to  make  him  earn  anything,  he  proposed  to  him 
that  he  should  purchase  his  freedom  and  go  to  Philadelphia, 
where  he  had  a  brother.  He  told  him  that  if  he  would  earn 
a  certain  sum  (8400  I  believe),  and  pay  it  over  to  the 
estate  for  himself,  he  would  give  him  his  free  papers.  The 
man  agreed  to  the  arrangement,  and  by  his  overwork  in  a 
tobacco  factory,  and  some  assistance  from  his  free  brother, 
soon  paid  the  sum  agreed  upon,  and  was  sent  to  Philadelphia. 
A  few  weeks  afterwards  he  met  him  in  the  street,  and  asked 
him  why  he  had  returned.  "  Oh,  I  don't  like  dat  Philadelphy, 
massa  ;  an't  no  chance  for  coloured  folks  dere ;  spec'  if  I'd 
been  a  runaway,  de  wite  folks  dere  take  care  o'  me ;  but  I 
couldn't  git  anythin'  to  do,  so  I  jis  borrow  ten  dollar  of  my 
broder,  and  cum  back  to  old  Virginny." 

"  But  you  know  the  law  forbids  your  return.  I  wonder 
that  you  are  not  afraid  to  be  seen  here ;  I  should  think 
Mr. [an  officer  of  police]  would  take  you  up." 

"  Oh  !  I  look  out  for  dat,  massa ;  I  juss  hire  myself  out 
to  Mr. himself,  ha  !  ha  !  He  tink  I  your  boy." 

And  so  it  proved ;  the  officer,  thinking  that  he  was  per- 
mitted to  hire  himself  out,  and  tempted  by  the  low  wages  at 
which  he  offered  himself,  had  neglected  to  ask  for  his  written 
permission,  and  had  engaged  him  for  a  year.  He  still  lived 

H  2 


100  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

with  the  officer,  and  was  an  active,  healthy,  good  servant  to 
him. 

A  well-informed  capitalist  and  slave-holder  remarked,  that 
negroes  could  not  be  employed  in  cotton  factories.  I  said 
that  I  understood  they  were  so  in  Charleston,  and  some  other 
places  at  the  South. 

"  It  may  be  so,  yet,"  he  answered,  "but  they  will  have  to 
give  it  up." 

The  reason  was,  he  said,  that  the  negro  could  never  be 
trained  to  exercise  judgment ;  he  cannot  be  made  to  use  his 
mind  ;  he  always  depends  on  machinery  doing  its  own  work, 
and  cannot  be  made  to  watch  it.  He  neglects  it  until  some- 
thing is  broken  or  there  is  great  waste.  "We  have  tried 
rewards  and  punishments,  but  it  makes  no  difference.  It's 
his  nature  and  you  cannot  change  it.  All  men  are  indolent 
and  have  a  disinclination  to  labour,  but  this  is  a  great  deal 
stronger  in  the  African  race  than  in  any  other.  In  working 
niggers,  we  must  always  calculate  that  they  will  not  labour 
at  all  except  to  avoid  punishment,  and  they  will  never  do 
more  than  just  enough  to  save  themselves  from  being 
punished,  and  no  amount  of  punishment  will  prevent  their 
working  carelessly  and  indifferently.  It  always  seems  on  the 
plantation  as  if  they  took  pains  to  break  all  the  tools  and 
spoil  all  the  cattle  that  they  possibly  can,  even  when  they 
know  they'll  be  directly  punished  for  it." 

As  to  rewards,  he  said,  "  They  only  want  to  support  life  : 
they  will  not  work  for  anything  more ;  and  in  this  country  it 
would  be  hard  to  prevent  their  getting  that."  I  thought  this 
opinion  of  the  power  of  rewards  was  not  exactly  confirmed  by 
the  narrative  we  had  just  heard,  but  I  said  nothing.  "  If 
you  could  move,"  he  continued,  "all  the  white  people  from 
the  whole  seaboard  district  of  Virginia  and  give  it  up  to  the 
regroes  that  are  on  it  now,  just  leave  them  to  themselves, 


VIRGINIA.  101 

in  ten  years'  time  there  would  not  be  an  acre  of  land  culti- 
vated, and  nothing  would  be  produced,  except  what  grew 
spontaneously. 

[The  Hon.  Willoughby  Newton,  by  the  way,  seems  to  think 
that  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  introduction  of  guano,  a  similar 
desolation  would  have  soon  occurred  without  the  Africaniza- 
tion of  the  country.  He  is  reported  to  have  said  : — 

["  I  look  upon  the  introduction  of  guano,  and  the  success 
attending  its  application  to  our  barren  lands,  in  the  light 
of  a  special  interposition  of  Divine  Providence,  to  save  the 
northern  neck  of  Virginia  from  reverting  entirely  into  its 
former  state  of  wilderness  and  utter  desolation.  Until  the 
discovery  of  guano — more  valuable  to  us  than  the  mines  of 
California — I  looked  upon  the  possibility  of  renovating  our 
soil,  of  ever  bringing  it  to  a  point  capable  of  producing  re- 
munerating crops,  as  utterly  hopeless.  Our  up-lands  were 
all  worn  out,  and  our  bottom-lands  fast  failing,  and  if  it  had 
not  been  for  guano,  to  revive  our  last  hope,  a  few  years  more 
and  the  whole  country  must  have  been  deserted  by  all  who 
desired  to  increase  their  own  wealth,  or  advance  the  cause  of 
civilization  by  a  proper  cultivation  of  the  earth/'] 

I  said  I  supposed  that  they  were  much  better  off,  more 
improved  intellectually,  and  more  kindly  treated  in  Virginia 
than  further  South.  He  said  I  was  mistaken  in  both  respects 
— that  in  Louisiana,  especially,  they  were  more  intelligent, 
because  the  amalgamation  of  the  races  was  much  greater,  and 
they  were  treated  with  more  familiarity  by  the  whites ;  be- 
sides which,  the  laws  of  Louisiana  were  much  more  favourable 
to  them.  For  instance,  they  required  the  planter  to  give 
slaves  200  pounds  of  pork  a  year :  and  he  gave  a  very  apt 
anecdote,  showing  the  effect  of  this  law,  but  which,  at  the 
same  time,  made  it  evident  that  a  Virginian  may  be  ac- 
customed to  neglect  providing  sufficient  food  for  his  force, 


102  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

and  that  they  sometimes  suffer  greatly  for  want  of  it.  I  was 
assured,  however,  that  this  was  very  rare — that,  generally, 
the  slaves  were  well  provided  for — always  allowed  a  sufficient 
quantity  of  meal,  and,  generally,  of  pork — were  permitted  to 
raise  pigs  and  poultry,  and  in  summer  could  always  grow  as 
many  vegetables  as  they  wanted.  It  was  observed,  however, 
that  they  frequently  neglect  to  provide  for  themselves  in  this 
way,  and  live  mainly  on  meal  and  bacon.  If  a  man  does  not 
provide  well  for  his  slaves,  it  soon  becomes  known ;  he  gets 
the  name  of  a  "  nigger  killer,"  and  loses  the  respect  of  the 
community. 

'The  general  allowance  of  food  was  thought  to  be  a  peck 
'and  a  half  of  meal,  and  three  pounds  of  bacon  a  week.  This, 
it  was  observed,  is  as  much  meal  as  they  can  eat,  but  they 
would  be  glad  to  have  more  bacon ;  sometimes  they  receive 
four  pounds,  but  it  is  oftener  that  they  get  less  than  three. 
It  is  distributed  to  them  on  Saturday  nights ;  or,  on  the 
better  managed  plantations,  sometimes  on  Wednesday,  to 
prevent  their  using  it  extravagantly,  or  selling  it  for  whisky 
on  Sunday.  This  distribution  is  called  the  "  drawing,"  and 
is  made  by  the  overseer  to  all  the  heads  of  families  or  single 
negroes.  Except  on  the  smallest  plantations,  where  the 
cooking  is  done  in  the  house  of  the  proprietor,  there  is  a 
cook-house,  furnished  with  a  large  copper  for  boiling,  and  an 
oven.  Every  night  the  negroes  take  their  "  mess,"  for  the 
next  day's  breakfast  and  dinner,  to  the  cook,  to  be  prepared 
for  the  next  day.  Custom  varies  as  to  the  time  it  is  served 
out  to  them ;  sometimes  at  morning  and  noon,  at  other  times 
at  noon  and  night.  Each  negro  marks  his  meat  by  cuts,  so 
that  he  shall  know  it  from  the  rest,  and  they  observe  each 
other's  rights  with  regard  to  this,  punctiliously. 

After  breakfast  has  been  eaten  early  in  the  cabins,  at  sun- 
rise, or  a  little  before  in  winter,  and  perhaps  a  little  later  in 


VIRGINIA  103 

summer,  they  go  to  the  field.  At  noon  dinner  is  brought  to 
them,  and,  unless  the  work  presses,  they  are  allowed  two 
hours'  rest.  Very  punctually  at  sunset  they  stop  work  and 
are  at  liberty,  except  that  a  squad  is  detached  once  a  week 
for  shelling  corn,  to  go  to  the  mill  for  the  next  week's 
drawing  of  meal.  Thus  they  work  in  the  field  about  eleven 
hours  a  day,  on  an  average.  Returning  to  the  cabins,  wood 
"  ought  to  have  been  "  carted  for  them  ;  but  if  it  has  not  been, 
they  then  go  the  woods  and  "  tote  "  it  home  for  themselves. 
They  then  make  a  fire — a  big,  blazing  fire  at  this  season,  for 
the  supply  of  fuel  is  unlimited — and  cook  their  own  supper, 
which  will  be  a  bit  of  bacon  fried,  often  with  eggs,  corn-bread 
baked  in  the  spider  after  the  bacon,  to  absorb  the  fat,  and 
perhaps  some  sweet  potatoes  roasted  in  the  ashes.  Imme- 
diately after  supper  they  go  to  sleep,  often  lying  on  the  floor 
or  a  bench  in  preference  to  a  bed.  About  two  o'clock  they 
very  generally  rouse  up  and  cook  and  eat,  or  eat  cold,  what 
they  call  their  "  mornin'  bit ;"  then  sleep  again  till  breakfast. 
They  generally  save  from  their  ration  of  meal :  commonly  as 
much  as  five  bushels  of  meal  was  sent  to  town  by  my  infor- 
mant's hands  every  week,  to  be  sold  for  them.  Upon  inquiry, 
he  almost  always  found  that  it  belonged  to  only  two  or  three 
individuals,  who  had  traded  for  it  with  the  rest ;  he  added, 
that  too  often  the  exchange  was  for  whisky,  which,  against  his 
rules,  they  obtained  of  some  rascally  white  people  in  the 
neighbourhood,  and  kept  concealed.  They  were  very  fond  of 
whisky,  and  sometimes  much  injured  themselves  with  it. 

To  show  me  how  well  they  were  supplied  with  eggs,  he 
said  that  once  a  vessel  came  to  anchor,  becalmed,  off  his 
place,  and  the  captain  came  to  him  and  asked  leave  to  pur- 
chase some  eggs  of  his  people.  He  gave  him  permission, 
and  called  the  cook  to  collect  them  for  him.  The  cook  asked 
how  many  she  should  bring.  "  Oh,  all  you  can  get,"  he 


10-i  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

answered — and  she  returned  after  a  time,  with  several  boys 
assisting  her,  bringing  nearly  two  bushels,  all  the  property 
of  the  slaves,  and  which  they  were  wining  to  sell  at  four 
cents  a  dozen. 

One  of  the  smokers  explained  to  me  that  it  is  bad  economy, 
not  to  allow  an  abundant  supply  of  food  to  "  a  man's  force." 
If  not  well  provided  for,  the  negroes  will  find  a  way  to  pro- 
vide for  themselves.  It  is,  also,  but  simple  policy  to  have 
them  well  lodged  and  clothed.  If  they  do  not  have  comfort- 
able cabins  and  sufficient  clothing,  they  will  take  cold,  and 
be  laid. up.  He  lost  a  valuable  negro,  once,  from  having 
neglected  to  provide  him  with  shoes. 

The  houses  of  the  slaves  are  usually  log-cabins,  of  various 
degrees  of  comfort  and  commodiousnes.s.  At  one  end  there 
is  a  great  open  fire-place,  which  is  exterior  to  the  wall  of  the 
house,  being  made  of  clay  in  an  inclosure,  about  eight  feet 
square  and  high,  of 'logs.  The  chimney  is  sometimes  ot 
brick,  but  more  commonly  of  lath  or  split  sticks,  laid  up  like 
log  work  and  plastered  with  mud.  They  enjoy  great  roaring 
fires,  and,  as  the  common  fuel  is  pine,  the  cabin,  at  night 
when  the  door  is  open,  seen  from  a  distance,  appears  like  a 
fierce  furnace.  The  chimneys  often  catch  fire,  and  the  cabin 
is  destroyed.  Yery  little  precaution  can  be  taken  against 
this  danger.*  Several  cabins  are  placed  near  together,  and 
they  are  called  "  the  quarters."  On  a  plantation  of  moderate 
size  there  will  be  but  one  "  quarters."  The  situation  chosen 

*  "  AN  INGENIOUS  NEGKO. — In  Lafayette,  Miss.,  a  few  <Lys  ago,  a  negro, 
who,  with  his  wife  and  three  children,  occupied  a  hut  upon  the  plantation  of  Col. 
Peques,  was  very  much  annoyed  by  fleas.  Believing  that  they  congregated  in 
great  numbers  beneath  the  house,  he  resolved  to  destroy  them  by  fire ;  and  accord- 
ingly, one  night  when  his  family  were  asleep,  he  raised  a  plank  in  the  floor  of  the 
cabin,  and,  procuring  an  armful  of  shucks,  scattered  them  on  the  ground  beneath, 
and  lighted  them.  The  consequence  was,  that  the  cabin  was  consumed,  and  the 
whole  family,  with  the  exception  of  Mie  man  who  lighted  the  fire,  was  burned  to 
death." — Journal  of  Commerce. 


VIRGINIA.  105 

for  it  has  reference  to  convenience  of  obtaining  water  from 
springs  and  fuel  from  the  woods. 

As  to  the  clothing  of  the  slaves  on  the  plantations,  they 
are  said  to  be  usually  furnished  by  their  owners  or  masters, 
every  year,  each  with  a  coat  and  trousers,  of  a  coarse  woollen 
or  woollen  and  cotton  stuff  (mostly  made,  especially  for  this 
purpose,  in  Providence,  E.  I.)  for  winter,  trousers  of  cotton 
osnaburghs  for  summer,  sometimes  with  a  jacket  also  of  the   \ 
same  ;  two  pairs  of  strong  shoes,  or  one  pair  of  strong  boots     ^ 
and   one  of    lighter  shoes   for  harvest;    three   shirts,    one 
blanket,  and  one  felt  hat.  /^ 

The  women  have  two  dresses  of  striped  cotton,  three  shifts,  ^ 
two  pairs  of  shoes,  etc.     The  women  lying-in  are  kept  at  \ 
knitting  short  sacks,  from  cotton,  which,  in  Southern  Virginia, 
is  usually  raised  for  this  purpose  on  the  farm,  and  these  are 
also  given  to  the  negroes.     They  also  purchase  clothing  for    .^ 
themselves,  and,  I  notice  especially,  are  well  supplied  witlr 
handkerchiefs,  which  the   men  frequently,  and  the   women 
nearly  always,  wear  on  their  heads.     On  Sundays  and  holi- 
days they  usually  look  very  smart,  but  when  at  work,  very 
ragged  and  slovenly. 

A*-,  the  conclusion  of  our  bar-room  session,  some  time  after 
midnight,  as  we  were  retiring  to  our  rooms,  our  progress  up 
stairs  and  along  the  corridors  was  several  times  impeded,  by 
negroes  lying  fast  asleep,  in  their  usual  clothes  only,  upon 
the  floor.  I  asked  why  they  were  not  abed,  and  was  an- 
swered by  a  gentleman,  that  negroes  never  wanted  to  go  to 
bed  ;  they  always  preferred  to  sleep  on  the  floor. 

That  "  slaves  are  liars,"  or,  as  they  say  here,  "niggers 
will  lie,"  always  has  been  proverbial.  "  They  will  he  in 
their  very  prayers  to  God,"  said  one,  and  I  find  illustrations 
of  the  trouble  that  the  vice  occasions  on  every  hand  here.  I 
just  heard  this,  from,  a  lady.  A  housemaid,  who  had  the 


106  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

reputation  of  being  especially  devout,  was  suspected  by  her 
mistress  of  having  stolen  from  her  bureau  several  trinkets. 

O 

She  was  charged  with  the  theft,  and  vociferously  denied  it. 
She  was  watched,  and  the  articles  discovered  openly  dis- 
played on  her  person  as  she  went  to  church.  She  still,  on 
her  return,  denied  having  them — was  searched,  and  they 
were  found  in  her  pockets.  When  reproached  by  her  mis- 
tress, and  lectured  on  the  wickedness  of  lying  and  stealing, 
she  replied  with  the  confident  air  of  knowing  the  ground  she 
stood  upon,  "Law,  .mam,  don't  say  I's  wicked;  ole  Aunt 
Ann  says  it  allers  right  for  us  poor  coloured  people  to  'po- 
piate  whatever  of  de  wite  folk's  blessins  de  Lord  puts  in  our 
way ;"  old  Aunt  Ann  being  a  sort  of  mother  in  the  coloured 
Israel  of  the  town. 

It  is  told  me  as  a  singular  fact,  that  everywhere  on  the 
plantations,  the  agrarian  notion  has  become  a  fixed  point  of 
the  negro  system  of  ethics  :  that  the  result  of  labour  belongs 
of  right  to  the  labourer,  and  on  this  ground,  even  the  reli- 
gious feel  justified  in  using  "  massa's  "  property  for  their  own 
temporal  benefit.  This  they  term  "  taking,"  and  it  is  never 
admitted  to  be  a  reproach  to  a  man  among  them  that  he  is 
charged  with  it,  though  "  stealing,"  or  taking  from  another 
than  their  master,  and  particularly  from  one  another,  is  so. 
They  almost  universally  pilfer  from  the  household  stores 
when  they  have  a  safe  opportunity. 

Jefferson  says  of  the  slaves  : 

"  Whether  further  observation  will  or  will  not  verify  the  conjecture, 
that  nature  has  been  less  bountiful  to  them  in  the  endowments  of  the 
head,  I  believe  that  in  those  of  the  heart  she  will  have  done  them  justice. 
That  disposition  to  theft,  with  which  they  have  been  branded,  must  be 
ascribed  to  their  situation,  and  not  to  any  depravity  of  the  moral  sense. 
The  man  in  whose  favour  no  laws  of  property  exist,  probably  feels  himself 
less  bound  to  respect  those  made  in  favour  of  others.  When  arguing  for 
ourselves,  we  lay  it  down  as  fundamental,  that  laws,  to  be  just,  must  give 


VIRGINIA.  107 

a  reciprocation  of  right ;  that  without  this,  they  are  mere  arbitrary  rules, 
founded  in  force,  and  not  in  conscience  ;  and  it  is  a  problem  which  I  give 
to  the  master  to  solve,  whether  the  religious  precepts  against  the  violation 
of  property  were  not  framed  for  him  as  well  as  his  slave?  and  whether  the 
slave  may  not  as  justifiably  take  a  little  from  one  who  has  taken  all  from 
him,  as  he  may  slay  one  who  would  slay  him  ?  That  a  change  of  the 
relations  in  which  a  man  is  placed  should  change  bis  ideas  of  moral  right 
and  wrong,  is  neither  new,  nor  peculiar  to  the  colour  of  the  blacks. 
Homer  tclLj  us  it  was  so,  2,600  years  ago  : 

"  '  Jove  fixed  it  certain,  that  whatever  day 

Makes  man  a  slave,  taken  hah'  his  worth  away.'  * 


108  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 


CHAPTEK  IV. 

THE   ECONOMY   OF   VIRGINIA. 

Englishman  will  cross  three  thousand  miles  of  sea,  and, 
anding  in  our  Free  States,  find,  under  a  different  sky  and 
climate,  a  people  speaking  the  same  language,  influenced  by 
the  same  literature,  giving  allegiance  to  the  same  common 
law,  and  with  not  very  dissimilar  tastes,  manners,  or  opinions, 
on  the  whole,  to  those  of  his  own  people.  What  most  strikes 
him  is  an  apparent  indifference  to  conditions  of  living  which 
he  would  at  home  call  shahby.  He  will  find  men,  however, 
at  whose  homes  he  will  hardly  see  anything,  either  of  sub- 
stance, custom,  or  manner,  by  which  he  would  know  that  he 
was  out  of  England,  and  if  he  asks  how  these  manage  to  get 
waiters  who  do  not  smell  of  the  stable ;  and  grooms  who  keep 
stirrups  bright ;  roofs  which  do  not  leak ;  lawns  which  are 
1  ;etter  than  stubble  fields  ;  walks  which  are  not  grassy ;  fences 
which  do  not  need  shoreing  up ;  staunch  dogs  ;  clean  guns  ; 
strong  boots  and  clothes  that  will  go  whole  through  a  thicket ; 
the  true  answer  will  be,  by  taking  double  the  pains  and 
paying  double  as  much  as  would  be  necessary  to  secure  the 
same  results  in  England,  and  that  few  men  are  willing  or  able 
to  do  this. 

I  make  half  a  day's  journey  southward  here,  and  I  find, 
with  an  equal  resemblance  between  the  people  and  those  I 
left,  an  indifference  to  conditions  of  living,  which  Mrs.  Stowe's 
Ophelia  describes  as  "shiftless,"  and  which  makes  the  same 


VIRGINIA.  109 

sort  of  impression  on  my  mind,  as  the  state  of  things  at  the 
North  does  upon  an  Englishman's.  But,  in  this  case,  there 
has  been  no  change  in  the  skies ;  I  wear  the  same  clothing, 
or  if  I  come  from  the  lojy  sea-ijoard  and,  going  in-land,  gain 
elevation,  I  need  some  better  protection  against  cold.  I  also 
find  exceptions ;  how  are  they  to  be  accounted  for  ?  The 
first  step  does  not  seem  difficult.  In  this  well-provided,  hos- 
pitable, and  most  agreeable  household,  for  instance,  there  are 
four  times  as  many  servants  as  in  one  which  would  otherwise 
be  as  similar  as  possible  to  it  at  the  North ;  to  say  nothing  of 
the  governess,  or  of  the  New  York  plumber,  who  has  been  at 
work  here  for  a  month ;  or  of  the  doctor,  who,  having  come 
fifteen  miles  to  lance  the  baby's  gums,  stays  of  course  to  dine 
with  us  ;  or  of  the  German,  who  I  am  told — such  is  the  value 
of  railroads  even  at  a  distance — left  Richmond  only  at  nine 
o'clock  last  night,  and  having  tuned  the  piano,  will  return  in 
time  for  his  classes  there  to-morrow  ;  or  of  the  patent  chain- 
pump  pedlar,  whose  horses  have  been  knocked  up  in  crossing 
the  swamp ;  or  of  the  weekly  mail-carrier,  who  cannot  go  on 
till  the  logs  which  have  floated  off  the  bridge  are  restored. 
Mr.  T.  means  soon,  he  tells  me,  to  build  a  substantial  bridge 
there,  because  his  nearest  respectable  neighbours  are  in  that 
direction.  His  nearest  neighbours  on  this  side  of  the  creek, 
by  the  way,  he  seems  to  regard  with  suspicion.  They  live  in 
solitary  cabins,  and  he  don't  think  they  do  a  day's  work  in  a 
year  ;  but  they  somehow  manage  to  always  have  corn  enough 
to  keep  themselves  from  starving,  and  as  they  certainly  don't 
raise  half  enough  for  this,  the  supposition  is  that  his  negroes 
steal  it  and  supply  it  in  exchange  for  whisky.  Clearly  the 
negroes  do  get  whisky,  somewhere ;  for  even  their  preacher, 
who  has  been  a  capital  blacksmith,  and  but  for  this  vice 
would  be  worth  g2500,  was  taken  with  delirium  tremens 
last  Sunday  night,  and  set  one  of  the  outhouses  on  fire,  so 


COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

that  the  energetic  Mr.  T.,  who  will  have  things  right  about 
his  "  place,"  has  determined  to  get  rid  of  him,  and  will  have 
him  sold  for  what  he  will  fetch  at  the  sheriff's  sale  at  the 
County  House  to-morrow ;  ard  Prior,  the  overseer,  must  go  to 
Kichmond  immediately,  to  see  about  a  new  blacksmith,  for 
the  plumber  says  that  until  one  is  got  he  must  stand  idle, 
and  the  ploughs  are  all  needing  repair.  A  less  energetic  man 
would  keep  old  Joe,  in  spite  of  his  vice,  on  account  of  his  old 
wife  and  many  children,  and  out  of  regard  to  the  spiritual 
interests  of  his  flock,  for  when  not  very  drunk,  old  Joe  is 
reckoned  the  best  preacher  in  five  counties.  But  Mr.  T.  is 
determined  to  live  like  a  gentleman ;  he  is  not  going  to  have 
the  hoofs  of  his  thorough-breds  spoiled  ;  and  he  will  have  hot 
and  cold  water  laid  on ;  and  he  tells  Prior  that  if  he  can  find 
a  first-rate  shoer,  young,  healthy,  active,  and  strong,  and 
handy  at  anything  in  the  way  of  his  trade,  not  to  lose  him,  if 
he  has  to  go  as  high  as  $  250,  for  the  year ;  or,  if  necessary, 
he  will  buy  such  an  one  outright,  at  any  fair  price,  if  he  can 
have  him  on  trial  for  a  month.  If  there  is  none  in  market, 
he  must  try  to  induce  that  Scotchman  who  hung  the  bells  to 
come  up  again  for  a  few  days.  "  Treat  him  like  a  gentleman," 
he  says,  "  and  tell  him  he  will  be  paid  whatever  he  asks,  and 
make  as  if  it  were  a  frolic." 

g  250  a  year,  and  a  man's  board  and  clothing,  with  iron, 
coal,  and,  possibly,  doctor's  bills  to  be  added,  is  certainly  a 
high  price  to  pay  for  the  blacksmith's  work  of  a  single  farm. 
This  exceptional  condition,  then,  it  is  obvious  on  the  face  of 
things,  is  maintained  at  an  enormous  expense,  not  only  of 
money,  but  of  nerve,  time,  temper,  if  not  of  humanity,  or  the 
world's  judgment  of  humanity.  There  is  much  inherited 
wealth,  a  cotton  plantation  or  two  in  Mississippi  and  a  few 
slips  of  paper  in  a  broker's  office  in  Wall  Street,  that  account 
for  the  comfort  of  this  Yirginia  farmer,  as,  with  something  of 


VIRGINIA.  Ill 

the  pride  which  apes  humility,  he  likes  to  style  himself.  And 
after  all  he  has  no  road  on  which  he  can  drive  his  fine  horses ; 
his  physician  supposes  the  use  of  chloric  ether,  as  an  ana- 
sthetic  agent,  to  be  a  novel  and  interesting  subject  of  after- 
dinner  eloquence ;  he  has  no  church  within  twenty  miles,  but 
one  of  logs,  attendance  on  which  is  sure  to  bring  on  an  attack 
of  neuralgia  with  his  wile,  and  where  only  an  ignorant  ranter 
of  a  different  faith  from  his  own  preaches  at  irregular  inter- 
vals ;  there  is  no  school  which  he  is  willing  that  his  children 
should  attend ;  his  daily  papers  come  weekly,  and  he  sees  no 
books  except  such  as  he  has  especially  ordered  from  Norton 
or  Stevens. 

This  being  the  exception,  how  is  it  with  the  community  as 
a  whole  ? 

As  a  whole,  the  community  makes  shift  to  live,  some  part 
tolerably,  the  most  part  wretchedly  enough,  with  arrange- 
ments such  as  one  might  expect  to  find  in  'a  country  in  stress 
of  war.  Nothing  which  can  be  postponed  or  overlooked,  with- 
out immediate  serious  inconvenience,  gets  attended  to.  One 
soon  neglects  to  inquire  why  this  is  not  done  or  that ;  the 
answer  is  so  certain  to  be  that  there  is  no  proper  person  to 
be  got  to  do  it  without  more  trouble  (or  expense)  than  it  is 
thought  to  be  worth.  Evidently  habit  reconciles  the  people 
to  do  without  much,  the  permament  want  of  which  would 
seem  likely  to  be  intolerable  to  those  who  had  it  in  possession. 
Nevertheless,  they  complain  a  good  deal,  showing  that  the 
evil  is  an  increasing  one.  Verbal  statements  to  the  same 
effect  as  the  following,  written  by  a  Virginian  to  the  '  Journal 
of  Commerce,'  are  often  heard. 

"  Hundreds  of  farmers  and  planters,  mill  owners,  tobacconists,  cotton 
factories,  iron  works,  steam-boat  owners,  master  builders,  contractors, 
carpenters,  stage  proprietors,  canal  boat  owners,  railroad  companies,  and 
others,  are,  and  have  been  short  of  hands  these  five  years  past,  in  Mary- 


112  COTTON   AND    SLAVEBY. 

land,  Virginia,  and  the  Carolinas.  They  pay  £150  or  £200  a  year  each 
hand,  and  his  board,  and  stealing,  and  if  that  hand  be  present  or  absent,  • 
sick  or  well,  it  is  all  the  same.  His  clothes  cost  say  £  30  more,  and  in 
many  cases  the  hirer  has  to  pay  his  policy  of  life  insurance.' 

For  all  that,  labourers  are  being  constantly  sent  away.  I 
have  not  been  on  or  seen  a  railroad  train,  departing  south- 
ward, that  it  did  not  convey  a  considerable  number  of  the  best 
class  of  negro  labourers,  in  charge  of  a  trader  who  was  in- 
tending to  sell  them  to  cotton-planters.  Thus  it  is  evident 
that,  great  as  is  the  need  for  more  labourers  here,  there  is  a 
still  greater  demand  for  them  to  raise  cotton  ;  and  in  order  to 
supply  this  demand,  the  Virginians  suffer  the  most  extreme 
inconvenience.  The  wonder  is,  that  their  own  demand  for 
labour  is  not  supplied  by  free  labourers.  But  it  appears  that 
where  negro  slavery  has  long  existed,  certain  occupations  are, 
by  custom,  assigned  to  the  slaves,  and  a  white  man  is  not 
only  reluctant  to  engage  himself  in  those  occupations,  but 
s  greatly  disinclined  to  employ  other  whites  in  them.  I  have 
often  asked :  "  Why  do  you  not  employ  white  men  ?"  (for 
this  or  that  purpose  for  which  slaves  could  not  be  procured ; ) 
and,  almost  always,  the  reply  has  been  given  in  a  tone 
which  indicated  a  little  feeling,  which,  if  I  do  not  misap- 
prehend it,  means  that  the  employment  of  whites  in  duties 
upon  which  slaves  are  ordinarily  employed  is  felt  to  be  not 
only  humiliating  to  the  whites  employed,  but  also  to  the 
employer. 

Nor  is  this  difficulty  merely  a  matter  of  sentiment.  I  have 
been  answered :  "  Our  poor  white  men  will  not  do  such  work 
if  they  can  very  well  help  it,  and  they  will  do  no  more  of  it 
than  they  are  obliged  to.  They  will  do  a  few  days'  work 
when  it  is  necessary  to  provide  themselves  with  the  neces- 
saries of  life,  but  they  are  not  used  to  steady  labour ;  they 
work  reluctantly,  and  will  not  bear  driving  ;  they  cannot  be 


VIRGINIA.  113 

worked  to  advantage  with  slaves,  and  it  is  inconvenient  to 
look  after  them,  if  you  work  them  separately."  And  then, 
when  I  push  the  inquiries  by  asking,  why  not  send  North  and 
get  some  of  our  labourers  ?  "  Well — 'the  truth  is,  I  have  been 
used  to  driving  niggers,  and  I  don't  think  I  could  drive  white 
mou.  I  should  not  know  how  to  manage  them."  So  far  as  I 
understand  the  matter,  then,  Virginia  is  in  this  position  :  there 
are  slaves  enough  in  most  of  the  country  to  mainly  exclude 
white  labourers  from  labouring  men's  occupations  and  to  make 
the  white  people  dependent  on  slave-labour  for  certain  things  ; 
but  the  slaves  being  drawn  off  almost  as  fast  as  they  grow  up 
to  grow  cotton  in  the  more  Southern  States,  and  those  which 
remain  being  managed  with  almost  as  much  regard  for  this 
demand  as  for  the  local  demand  for  labour,  this  local  demand 
is  not  systematically  provided  for  ;  and  even  if  there  were  the 
intention  to  provide  for  it,  there  are  no  sufficient  means  to 
do  so,  as  the  white  population  increases  in  number  much 
more  rapidly  than  the  slave.*  I  do  not  mean  that  no  whites 
are  employed  hi  the  ordinary  occupations  of  slaves  in 
Virginia.  In  some  parts  there  are  few  or  no  slaves,  and  the 
white  people  who  live  in  these  parts,  of  course  do  not  live 
without  having  work  done ;  but  even  in  these  districts  it  is 
hardly  possible  to  find  men  or  women,  who  are  willing  and 
able  to  serve  others  well  and  faithfully,  on  wages.  In  some 
parts  white  working  men  also  drift  in  slowly  from  the  Free 
States,  but  they  are  too  few  and  scattered  to  perceptibly 
affect  the  habits  of  the  people  and  customs  of  the  country, 

*  From  1850  to  1860,  the  rate  of  increase  of  the  free  population  has  been 
l<)-44  per  cent. ;  of  the  slave,  3'88.  (From  a  recent  official  statement  of  the 
Census  Office.)  A  somewhat  parallel  case  to  that  of  the  Virginia  slaveholder  is 
that  of  a  breeder  of  blooded  stock.  A  Flying  Dutchman  is  used  upon  occasion  as 
a  charger,  but  under  no  pressure  of  the  harvest  will  you  find  him  put  before  the 
cart.  I  have  more  than  once  heard  the  phrase  used,  "  Niggers  are  worth  too 
much  "  to  be  used  in  such  and  such  work.  Instances  of  this  are  given  hereafter. 

VOL.  I.  I 


114  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

while  they  rapidly  adapt  themselves  to  these  habits  and 
customs.  Thus  it  is  questionable  if  as  yet  they  do  not  add 
more  to  the  general  demand  for  labour  than  they  supply  to 
reduce  it. 

Still,  it  is  where  slaves  remain  in  the  greatest  numbers, 
proportionately  to  the  whites,  that  the  scarcity  of  labourers, 
or  what  is  practically  the  same  thing,  the  cost  of  getting 
desirable  work  done,  is  most  obvious.  Schools,  churches, 
roads,  bridges,  fences,  houses,  stables,  are  all  more  frequent, 
and  in  better  repair,  where  the  proportion  of  whites  to  slaves 
is  large,  than  in  the  ''  negro  counties,"  as  some  are  popularly 
designated,  from  the  preponderance  of  the  slave  population 
in  them.  I  find  this  observation  confirmed  by  an  examination 
of  the  Census  returns  and  other  documents. 

In  the  North-western  counties,  .Cabell,  Mason,  Brooke,  and 
Tyler,  in  or  adjoining  which  there  are  no  large  towns,  but  a 
free  labouring  population,  with  slaves  in  ratio  to  the  freemen 
as  one  to  fifteen  only,  the  value  of  land  is  over  seven  dollars 
and  three  quarters  an  acre. 

In  Southampton,  Surrey,  James  Town  and  New  Kent,  in 
which  the  slave  population  is  as  1  to  2 '2,  the  value  of  land  is 
but  little  more  than  half  as  much — £4.50  an  acre. 

The  value  of  land  of  course  rises  with  its  availability  to 
contribute  to  the  wants  of  men,  and  it  can  only  be  made 
available  as  labour  can  bo  applied  to  it. 

In  Surrey,  Prince  George,  Charles  City,  and  James,  adjoin- 
ing counties  on  James  Kiver,  and  originally  having  some  of 
the  most  productive  soil  in  the  State,  and  now  supplied  with 
the  public  conveniences  which  have  accrued  in  two  hundred 
years  of  occupation  by  a  civilized  and  Christian  community, 
the  number  of  slaves  being  at  present,  to  that  of  whites  as 
1  to  1'9,  the  value  of  land  is  but  g  6  an  acre. 

In  Fairfax,  another  of  the  first  settled   counties,   and  in 


VIKGINIA.  115 

which,  twenty-years  ago,  land  was  even  less  in  value  than  in 
the  James  Kiver  counties,  it  is  now  become  worth  twice  as 
much. 

The  slave  population,  once  greater  than  that  of  whites,  has 
been  reduced  by  emigration  and  sale,  till  there  are  now  leas 
than  half  as  many  slaves  as  whites.  In  the  place  of  slaves 
has  come  another  sort  of  people.  The  change  which  has 
taken  place,  and  the  cause  of  it,  is  thus  simply  described  in 
the  Agricultural  Report  of  the  County  to  the  Commissioner 
of  Patents.* 

"In  appearance,  the  county  is  so  changed  in  many  parts,  that  a  travel- 
ler \vho  passed  over  it  ten  years  ago  would  not  now  recognize  it.  Thou- 
sands and  thousands  of  acres  had  been  cultivated  in  tobacco  by  the  former 
proprietors,  would  not  pay  the  cost,  and  were  abandoned  as  worthless,  and 
became  covered  witli  a  wilderness  of  pines.  These  lands  have  been  pur- 
chased by  Northern  emigrants ;  the  large  tracts  divided  and  subdivided 
and  cleared  of  pines  ;  and  neat  farm-houses  and  barns,  witli  smiling  fit  Ids 
of  grain  and  grass  in  the  season,  salute  the  delighted  gaz'e  of  the  beholder. 
Ten  years  ago  it  was  a  mooted  question  whether  Fairfax  lands  could  bo 
made  productive  ;  and  if  so,  would  they  pay  the  cost  ?  This  problem  lias 
been  satisfactorily  solved  by  many,and  in  consequence  of  the  above  altered 
state  of  things  school-houses  and  churches  have  doubled  in  number." 

The  following  substantiates  what  I  have  said  of  the  inavail- 
ability  of  the  native  whites  for  supplying  the  place  of  the 
negroes  exported  to  the  cotton  plantations. 

From  the  Patent  Office  Report  for  1847. 

"  As  to  the  price  of  labour,  our  mechanics  charge  from  one  to  two 
dollars  a  day.  As  to  agricultural  labour,  we  have  none.  Our  poor  are 
poor  because  they  witt  not  work,  therefore  are  seldom  employed. 

"  CHAS.  YANCET, 
"  Bitckingham  Co.,  Virginia." 

The  sentence,  "As  to  agricultural  labour,  we  have  none," 
must  mean  no  free  labour,  the  number  of  slaves  in  this  county 
being  according  to  the  Census  8,161,  or  nearly  3,000  more 

*  See  '  Patent  Offic*  Report,  1852.' 

I    ^ 


116  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

than  the  whole  white  population.     There  are  also  250   free 
negroes  in  the  county. 

From  a  Correspondent  of  the  'American  Agriculturist,'  Feb.  14,  1855. 
"As  to  labourers,  we  work  chiefly  slaves,  not  because  they  are  cheaper, 
but  rather  because  they  are  the  only  reliable  labour  we  can  get.  The 
whites  here  engage  to  work  for  less  price  than  the  blacks  can  be  got  for ; 
yet  they  will  not  work  well,  and  rarely  work  out  the  time  specified.  If  any 
of  your  friends  come  here  and  wish  to  work  whites,  I  would  advise  them 
by  all  means  to  bring  them  with  them ;  for  our  white  labourers  are  far 
inferior  to  our  blacks,  and  our  black  labour  is  far  inferior  to  what  we  read 
and  hear  of  your  labourers.  "  C.  G.  G. 

"  Albemarle  Co.,  Virginia." 

In  Albemarle  there  are  over  thirteen  thousand  slaves  to 
less  than  twelve  thousand  whites. 

Among  the  native  Virginians  I  find  most  intelligent  men, 
very  ready  to  assert  that  slavery  is  no  disadvantage  to  Vir- 
ginia, and,  as  necessary  to  the  maintenance  of  this  assertion, 
that  slave-labour  is  no  dearer  than  free-labour,  that  is,  than 
free-labour  would  be,  if  slavery  did  not  exist.  It  is  even  said — 
and,  as  I  have  shown,  it  is  practically  true,  at  least  wherever 
slavery  has  not  in  a  great  measure  withdrawn  from  the  field — 
that  white  labour  cannot  live  in  competition  with  slave-labour. 
In  other  words,  the  holder  of  slave-labour  controls  the  local 
market  for  labour,  and  the  cost  of  slave-labour  fixes  the  cost 
of  everything  which  is  produced  by  slave-labour.  But  it  is  a 
mistake  which  the  Virginians  generally  make,  when  they  jump 
from  this  to  the  conclusion  that  slave-labour  is  therefore 
cheaper  under  all  circumstances  than  free-labour.  It  is 
evident  that  slaves  are  valuable  for  another  purpose  than 
to  supply  the  local  demand  for  their  labour,  namely,  to  supply 
the  demand  of  the  cotton  planter ;  consequently  those  slaves 
which  are  employed  to  supply  the  local  demand,  must  be 
employed  either  at  a  loss,  or  at  what  they  are  worth  to  the 
cotton  planter.  Whether  this  is  more  or  less  than  free- 


VIRGINIA.  117 

labour  would  cost  if  the  field  were  open,  can  only  be  ascer- 
tained by  comparing  the  cost  of  slave-labour  in  Virginia  with 
the  cost  of  free-labour  in  the  Free  States. 

An  exact  comparison  on  a  large  scale  I  cannot  find  the  means 
of  making,  but  I  have  taken  a  great  many  notes  which  lead 
me  with  confidence  to  a  few  important  general  conclusions. 

Wages. — Many  thousand  slaves  have  been  hired  in  Eastern 
Virginia  during  the  tune  of  my  visit.  The  wages  paid  for  able 
working  men — sound,  healthy,  in  good  condition,  and  with  no 
especial  vices,  from  twenty  to  thirty  years  old — are  from  $  110 
to  g 140  ;  the  average,  as  nearly  as  I  can  ascertain,  from  very 
extended  inquiry,  being  g  120  per  year,  with  board  and  lodg- 
ing, and  certain  other  expenses.  These  wages  must  represent 
exactly  the  cost  of  slave-labour,  because  any  considerations 
which  would  prevent  the  owner  of  a  slave  disposing  of  his 
labour  for  those  wages,  when  the  labour  for  his  own  purposes 
would  not  be  worth  as  much,  are  so  many  hindrances  upon 
the  free  disposal  of  his  property,  and  thereby  deduct  from  its 
actual  value,  as  measured  with  money. 

As  the  large  majority  of  slaves  are  employed  in  agricultural 
labour,  and  many  of  those,  hired  at  the  prices  I  have  men- 
tioned, are  taken  directly  from  the  labour  of  the  farm,  and  are 
skilled  in  no  other,  these  wages  represent  the  cost  of  agricul- 
tural labour  in  Eastern  Virginia. 

In  New  York,  the  usual  wages  for  similar  men,  if  Ameri- 
cans, white  or  black,  are  exactly  the  same  in  the  money  part ; 
for  Irish  or  German  labourers  the  most  common  wages  are 

10  per  month,  for  summer,  and  g  8  per  month,  for  winter, 
or  from  g96  to  S  120  a  year,  the  average  being  about 
S108. 

The  hirer  has,  in  addition  to  paying  wages  for  the  slave,  to 
feed  aiid  to  clothe  him  ;  the  free  labourer  requires  also  to  be 


118  COTTON   AND    SLAVEBY. 

boarded,  but -not  to  be  clothed  by  his  employer.  The  opinion 
is  universal  in  Yirginia,  that  the  slaves  are  better  fed  than  the 
Northern  labourers.  This  is,  however,  a  mistake,  and  we 
must  consider  that  the  board  of  the  Northern  labourer  would 
cost  at  least  as  much  more  as  the  additional  cost  of  clothing 
to  the  slave.  Comparing  man  with  man,  with  reference  simply 
to  equality  of  muscular  power  and  endurance,  my  final  judg- 
ment is,  that  the  wages  for  common  labourers  are  twenty-five 
per  cent,  higher  in  Virginia  than  in  New  York. 

Loss  from,  disability  of  the  labourer. — This  to  the  employer 
of  free  labourers  need  be  nothing.  To  the  slave-master  it 
is  of  varying  consequence :  sometimes  small,  often  exces- 
sively embarrassing,  and  always  a  subject  of  anxiety  and  sus- 
picion. I  have  not  yet  made  the  inquiry  on  any  plantation 
where  as  many  as  twenty  negroes  are  employed  together,  that 
I  have  not  found  one  or  more  of  the  field-hands  not  at  work, 
on  account  of  some  illness,  strain,  bruise,  or  wound,  of  which 
he  or  she  was  complaining  ;  and  in  such  cases  the  proprietor 
or  overseer  has,  I  think,  never  failed  to  express  his  suspicion 
that  the  invalid  was  really  as  well  able  to  work  as  anyone  else 
on  the  plantation.  It  is  said  to  be  nearly  as  difficult  to  form 
a  satisfactory  diagnosis  of  negroes'  disorders  as  it  is  of  infants', 
because  their  imagination  of  symptoms  is  so  vivid,  and  because 
not  the  smallest  reliance  is  to  be  placed  on  their  accounts  of 
what  they  have  felt  or  done.  If  a  man  is  really  ill,  he  fears 
lest  he  should  be  thought  to  be  simulating,  and  therefore 
exaggerates  all  his  pains,  and  locates  them  in  whatever  he 
supposes  to  be  the  most  vital  paris  of  his  system. 

Frequently  the  invalid  slaves  neglect  or  refuse  to  use  the 
remedies  prescribed  for  their  recovery.  They  conceal  pills, 
for  instance,  under  their  tongue,  and  declare  that  they  have 
swallowed  them,  when,  from  their  producing  no  effect,  it  will 


119 

be  afterwards  evident  that  they  have  not.  This  general 
custom  I  heard  ascribed  to  habit,  acquired  when  they  were 
not  very  ill,  and  were  loth  to  be  made  quite  well  enough  to 
have  to  go  to  work  again. 

Amusing  incidents,  illustrating  this  difficulty,  I  have  heard 
narrated,  showing  that  the  slave  rather  enjoys  getting  a  severe 
wound  that  lays  him  up : — he  has  his  hand  crushed  by  the 
fell  of  a  piece  of  timber,  and  after  the  pain  is  alleviated,  is 
heard  to  exclaim,  "  Bress  der  Lord — der  haan  b'long  to 
masser — don't  reckon  dis  chile  got  no  more  corn  to  hoe  dis 
yaar,  no  how." 

Mr.  H.,  of  North  Carolina,  observed  to  me,  in  relation  to 
this  difficulty,  that  a  man  who  had  had  much  experience  with 
negroes  could  generally  tell,  with  a  good  deal  of  certainty,  by 
their  tongue,  and  their  pulse,  and  their  general  aspect,  whether 
they  were  really  ill  or  not. 

"  Last  year,"  said  he,  "  I  hired  out  one  of  my  negroes  to  a 
railroad  contractor.  I  suppose  that  he  found  he  had  to  work 
harder  than  he  would  on  the  plantation,  and  became  discon- 
tented, and  one  night  he  left  the  camp  without  asking  leave. 
The  next  day  he  stopped  at  a  public-house,  and  told  the 
people  he  had  fallen  sick  working  on  the  railroad,  and  was 
going  home  to  his  master.  They  suspected  he  had  run  away, 
and,  as  he  had  no  pass,  they  arrested  him  and  sent  him  to 
the  jail.  In  the  night  the  sheriff  sent  me  word  that  there 
was  a  boy,  who  said  he  belonged  to  me,  in  the  jail,  and  he 
was  very  sick  indeed,  and  I  had  better  come  and  take  care  of 
him.  I  suspected  how  it  was,  and,  as  I  was  particularly 
engaged,  I  did  not  go  near  him  till  towards  night,  the  next 
day.  When  I  came  to  look  at  him,  and  heard  his  story,  I 
felt  quite  sure  that  he  was  not  sick ;  but,  as  he  pretended  to 
be  suffering  very  much,  I  told  the  sheriff  to  give  him  plenty  of 
salts  and  senna,  and  to  be  careful  that  he  did  not  get  much 


120  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

of  anything  to  eat.  The  next  day  I  got  a  letter  from  the 
contractor,  telling  me  that  my  nigger  had  run  away,  without 
any  cause.  So  I  rode  over  to  the  jail  again,  and  told  them  to 
continue  the  same  treatment  until  the  boy  got  a  good  deal 
worse  or  a  good  deal  better.  Well,  the  rascal  kept  it  up  for 
a  week,  all  the  time  groaning  so,  you'd  think  he  couldn't  live 
many  hours  longer ;  but,  after  he  had  been  in  seven  days,  he 
all  of  a  sudden  said  he'd  got  well,  and  wanted  something  to 
eat.  As  soon  as  I  heard  of  it,  I  sent  them  word  to  give  him 
a  good  paddling,*  and  handcuff  him,  and  send  him  back  to 
the  railroad.  I  had  to  pay  them  for  taking  up  a  runaway, 
besides  the  sheriff's  fees,  and  a  week's  board  of  the  boy  to  the 
county." 

But  the  same  gentleman  admitted  that  he  had  sometimes 
been  mistaken,  and  had  made  men  go  to  work  when  they 
afterwards  proved  to  be  really  ill ;  therefore,  when  one  of  his 
people  told  him  he  was  not  able  to  work,  he  usually  thought, 
"  Very  likely  he'll  be  all  the  better  for  a  day's  rest,  whether 
he's  really  ill  or  not,"  and  would  let  him  off  without  being 
particular  in  his  examination.  Lately  he  had  been  getting  a 
new  overseer,  and  when  he  was  engaging  him,  he  told  him 
that  this  was  his  way.  The  overseer  replied,  "  It's  my  way, 
too,  now  ;  it  didn't  use  to  be,  but  I  had  a  lesson.  There  was 
a  nigger  one  day  at  Mr. 's  who  was  sulky  and  complain- 
ing ;  he  said  he  couldn't  work.  I  looked  at  his  tongue,  and 
it  was  right  clean,  and  I  thought  it  was  nothing  but  damned 
sulkiness,  so  I  paddled  him,  and  made  him  go  to  work ;  but, 
two  days  after,  he  was  under  ground.  He  was  a  good  eight 
hundred  dollar  nigger,  and  it  was  a  lesson  to  me  about  taming 
possums,  that  I  ain't  agoing  to  forget  in  a  hurry." 

The  liability  of  women,  especially,  to  disorders  and  irre- 
gularities which  cannot  be  detected  by  exterior  symptoms,  but 

*  Not  something  to  eat,  but  punishment  with  an  instrument  like  a  ferule. 


VIRGINIA.  121 

which  may  be  easily  aggravated  into  serious  complaints, 
renders  many  of  them  nearly  valueless  for  work,  because  of  the 
ease  with  which  they  can  impose  upon  their  owners.  "  The 
women  on  a  plantation,"  said  one  extensive  Virginian  slave- 
owner to  me,  "  will  hardly  earn  their  salt,  after  they  come  to 
the  breeding  age :  they  don't  come  to  the  field,  and  you  go  to 
the  quarters,  and  ask  the  old  nurse  what's  the  matter,  and  she 
says,  '  Oh,  she's  not  well,  master  ;  she  not  fit  to  work,  sir ;' 
and  what  can  you  do  ?  You  have  to  take  her  word  for  it  that 
something  or  other  is  the  matter  with  her,  and  you  dare  not 
set  her  to  work  ;  and  so^  she  lay  up  till  she  feels  like  taking 
the  air  again,  and  plays  the  lady  at  your  expense." 

I  was  on  a  plantation  where  a  woman  had  been  excused 
from  any  sort  of  labour  for  more  than  two  years,  on  the  sup- 
position that  she  was  dying  of  phthisis.  At  last  the  overseer 
discovered  that  she  was  employed  as  a  milliner  and  dress- 
maker by  all  the  other  coloured  ladies  of  the  vicinity  ;  and 
upon  taking  her  to  the  house,  it  was  found  that  she  had 
acquired  a  remarkable  skill  in  these  vocations.  She  was  hired 
out  the  next  year  to  a  fashionable  dress-maker  in  town,  at 
handsome  wages ;  and  as,  after  that,  she  did  not  again  "  raise 
blood,"  it  was  supposed  that  when  she  had  done  so  before,  it 
had  been  by  artificial  means.  Such  tricks  every  army  and 
navy  surgeon  is  familiar  with. 

The  interruption  and  disarrangement  of  operations  of  la- 
bour, occasioned  by  slaves  "  running  away,"  frequently  causes 
great  inconvenience  and  loss  to  those  who  employ  them.  It  is 
said  to  often  occur  when  no  immediate  motive  can  be  guessed 
at  for  it — when  the  slave  has  been  well  treated,  well  fed,  and 
not  over- worked ;  and  when  he  will  be  sure  to  suffer  hardship 
from  it,  and  be  subject  to  severe  punishment  on  his  return,  or 
if  he  is  caught. 

This  is  often  mentioned  to  illustrate  the  ingratitude  and 


122  COTTON   AND   SLAVEBY. 

especial  depravity  of  the  African  race.  I  should  suspect  it  to 
be,  if  it  cannot  be  otherwise  accounted  for,  the  natural  in- 
stinct of  freedom  in  a  man,  working  out  capriciously,  as  the 
wild  instincts  of  domesticated  beasts  and  birds  sometimes  do. 

But  the  learned  Dr.  Cartwright,  of  the  University  of 
Louisiana,  believes  that  slaves  are  subject  to  a  peculiar  form 
of  mental  disease,  termed  by  him  Drapetomania,  which,  like 
a  malady  that  cats  are  liable  to,  manifests  itself  by  an  irre- 
strainable  propensity  to  run  away ;  and  in  a  work  on  the 
diseases  of  negroes,  highly  esteemed  at  the  South  for  its 
patriotism  and  erudition,  he  advises  planters  of  the  proper 
preventive  and  curative  measures  to  be  taken  for  it. 

He  asserts  that,  "  with  the  advantage  of  proper  medical 
advice,  strictly  followed,  this  troublesome  practice  of  running 
away,  that  many  negroes  have,  can  be  almost  entirely  pre- 
vented." Its  symptoms  and  the  usual  empirical  practice  on 
the  plantations  are  described:  "Before  negroes  run  u\vay, 
unless  they  are  frightened  or  panic-struck,  they  become  sulky 
and  dissatisfied.  The  cause  of  this  sulkiness  and  dissatis- 
faction should  be  inquired  into  and  removed,  or  they  are  apt 
to  run  away  or  fall  into  the  negro  consumption."  When  sulky 
or  dissatisfied  without  cause,  the  experience  of  those  having 
most  practice  with  drapetomania,  the  Doctor  thinks,  has  been 
in  favour  of  "whipping  them  out  of  it"  It  is  vulgarly 
called,  "whipping  the  devil  out  of  them"  he  afterwards 
informs  us. 

Another  droll  sort  of  "  indisposition,"  thought  to  be  pecu- 
liar to  the  slaves,  and  which  must  greatly  affect  their  value, 
as  compared  with  free  labourers,  is  described  by  Dr.  Cart- 
wright,  as  follows  : — 

"  DYSJESTHESIA  ^THIOPICA,  or  Hebetude  of  Mind  and  Obtuse  Sensibility 
of  Body.  *  *  From  the  careless  movements  of  the  individuals  affected 
with  this  complaint,  they  are  apt  to  do  much  mischief,  which  appears  a*  if 
ntentional,  but  is  mostly  owing  to  the  stupidness  of  mind  and  insensibility 


VIRGINIA.  123 

of  the  nerves  induced  by  the  disease.  Thus  they  break,  waste,  any 
d-.-tr  iy  everything  they  ha  > dL-  —  abuse  horses  ami  cattle — tear,  burn,  or 
rend  their  own  clothing,  and,  paying  no  attention  to  the  rights  of  property, 
steal  others  to  replace  what  they  have  destroyed.  Taey  wander  about  at 
night,  and  keep  in  a  half-nodding  state  by  day.  They  slight  their  work — 
fill  ni)  uorn,  cane,  cotton,  and  tobacco,  when  hoeing  it,  as  if  for  pure  mis- 
chief. They  raise  disturbances  with  their  overseers,  and  among  their 
fellow-servants,  without  cause  or  motive,  and  seem  to  be  insensible  to  pain 
when  subjected  to  punishment.  *  *  * 

"  When  left  to  himself,  the  negro  indulges  in  his  natural  disposition  to 
idleness  and  sloth,  and  does  not  tako  exercise  enough  to  expand  his  lungs 
and  vitalize  his  blood,  but  dazes  out  a  miserable  existence  in  the  midst  of 
filth  and  uncleanliness,  being  too  indolent,  and  having  too  little  energy  of 
mi:id,  to  provide  for  himself  proper  food  and  comfortable  clothing  and 
lodging.  The  consequence  is,  that  the  blood  becomes  so  highly  carbon- 
ized and  deprived  of  oxygen  that  it  not  only  becomes  unfit  to  stimulate 
thejtruin  to  energy,  but  unfit  to  stimulate  the  nerves  of  sensation  distri- 
buted to  the  body.  *  *  * 

"  This  is  the  disease  called  Dysxsthesia  (a  Greek  term  expressing  the 
dull  or  obtuse  sensation  that  always  attends  the  complaint).  When  roused 
from  sloth  by  the  stimulus  of  hunger,  he  takes  anytliing  he  can  lay  his 
hands  on,  and  tramples  on  the  rights  as  well  as  on  the  property  of  others, 
with  perfect  indifference.  When  driven  to  labour  by  the  compulsive 
power  of  the  white  man,  he  performs  the  task  assigned  to  him  in  a  head- 
long, careless  manner,  treading  down  with  his  feet  or  cutting  with  his  hoe 
the  plants  he  is  put  to  cultivate — breaking  the  tools  he  works  with,  and 
spoiling  everything  he  touches  that  can  be  injured  by  careless  handling. 
Hence  the  overseers  call  it  'rascality,'  supposing  that  the  miscliicf  is 
intentionally  done.  *  *  * 

"  The  term,  '  rascality,'  given  to  this  disease  by  overseers,  is  founded  on 
an  erroneous  hypothesis,  and  leads  to  an  incorrect  empirical  treatment, 
which  seldom  or  never  cures  it." 

There  are  many  complaints  described  in  Dr.  Cartwright's 
treatise,  to  which  the  negroes,  in  slavery,  seem  to  be  pecu- 
liarly subject. 

"More  fatal  than  any  other  is  congestion  of  the  lungs,  per  {pneumonia 
notha,  often  called  cold  plague,  etc.  *  *  * 

"  The  Frarribxsia,  Piam,  or  Yaws,  is  a  contagious  disease,  communicable 
by  contact  among  those  who  greatly  neglect  cleanliness.  It  is  supposed 
to  be  communicable,  in  a  modified  form,  to  the  white  race,  among  whom 
it  re.-ciiililes  psendo  syphilis,  or  some  disease  of  the  nose,  throat,  or 
larynx.  *  *  * 

"  Negro-consumption,  a  disease  almost  unknown  to  medical  men  of  the 


124  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

Northern  States  and  of  Europe,  is  also  sometimes  fearfully  prevalent 
among  the  slaves.  '  It  is  of  importance,'  says  the  Doctor,  '  to  know  the 
pathognomic  signs  in  its  early  stages,  not  only  in  regard  to  its  treatment, 
but  to  detect  impositions,  as  negroes  afflicted  with  this  complaint  are 
often  for  sale ;  the  acceleration  of  the  pulse,  on  exercise,  incapacitates 
them  for  labour,  as  they  quickly  give  out,  and  have  to  leave  their  work. 
This  induces  their  owners  to  sell  them,  although  they  may  not  know  the 
cause  of  their  inability  to  labour.  Many  of  the  negroes  brought  South,  for 
sale,  are  in  the  incipient  stages  of  this  disease  ;  they  are  found  to  be 
inefficient  labourers,  and  are  sold  in  consequence  thereof.  The  effect  of 
superstition— a  firm  belief  that  he  is  poisoned  or  conjured — upon  the 
patient's  mind,  already  in  a  morbid  state  (dyssesthesia),  and  his  health 
affected  from  hard  usage,  over-tasking  or  exposure,  want  of  wholesome 
food,  good  clothing,  warm,  comfortable  lodging,  with  the  distressing  idea 
(sometimes)  that  he  is  an  object  of  hatred  or  dislike,  both  to  his  master  or 
fellow-servants,  and  has  no  one  to  befriend  him,  tends  directly  to  generate 
that  erythism  of  mind  which  is  the  essential  cause  of  negro-consumption.' 
*  '  .Remedies  should  be  assisted  by  removing  the  original  cause  of  the 
dissatisfaction  or  trouble  of  mind,  and  by  usiug  every  means  to  make  the 
patient  comfortable,  satisfied,  and  happy.'  " 

Longing  for  home  generates  a  distinct  malady,  known  to 
physicians  as  Nostalgia,  and  there  is  a  suggestive  analogy 
between  the  treatment  commonly  employed  to  cure  it  and 
that  recommended  in  this  last  advice  of  Dr.  Cartwright. 

Discipline. — Under  the  slave  system  of  labour,  discipline 
must  always  be  maintained  by  physical  power.  A  lady  e* 
New  York,  spending  a  winter  in  a  Southern  city,  had  a  hired 
slave-servant,  who,  one  day,  refused  outright  to  perform  some 
ordinary  light  domestic  duty  required  of  her.  On  the  lady's 
gently  remonstrating  with  her,  she  immediately  replied : 
"  You  can't  make  me  do  it,  and  I  won't  do  it :  I  aint  afeard 
of  you  whippin'  me."  The  servant  was  right ;  the  lady  could 
not  whip  her,  and  was  too  tender-hearted  to  call  in  a  man,  or 
to  send  her  to  the  guard-house  to  be  whipped,  as  is  the 
custom  with  Southern  ladies,  when  their  patience  is  exhausted, 
under  such  circumstances.  She  endeavoured,  by  kindness 
and  by  appeals  to  the  girl's  good  sense,  to  obtain  a  moral 


VIRGINIA.  125 

control  over  her ;  but,  after  suffering  continual  annoyance 
and  inconvenience,  and  after  an  intense  trial  of  her  feelings, 
for  some  time,  she  was  at  length  obliged  to  go  to  her  owner, 
and  beg  him  to  come  and  take  her  away  from  the  house,  on 
any  terms.  It  was  no  better  than  having  a  lunatic  or  a  mis- 
chievous and  pilfering  monomaniac  quartered  on  her.* 

But  often  when  courage  and  physical  power,  with  the 
strength  of  the  militia  force  and  the  army  of  the  United 
States,  if  required,  at  the  back  of  the  master,  are  not  want- 
ing, there  are  a  great  variety  of  circumstances  that  make  a 
resort  to  punishment  inconvenient,  if  not  impossible. 

Really  well-trained,  accomplished,  and  docile  house-servants 
are  seldom  to  be  purchased  or  hired  at  the  South,  though 
they  are  found  in  old  wealthy  families  rather  oftener  than 
first-rate  English  or  French  servants  are  at  the  North.  It 
is,  doubtless,  a  convenience  to  have  even  moderately  good 
servants  who  cannot,  at  any  time  of  their  improved  value  or 
your  necessity,  demand  to  have  their  pay  increased,  or  who 
cannot  be  drawn  away  from  you  by  prospect  of  smaller 
demands  and  kinder  treatment  at  your  neighbour's ;  but  I 
believe  few  of  those  who  are  incessantly  murmuring  against 
this  healthy  operation  of  God's  good  law  of  supply  and 
demand  would  be  willing  to  purchase  exemption  from  it,  at  the 
price  with  which  the  masters  and  mistresses  of  the  South  do. 
They  would  pay,  to  get  a  certain  amount  of  work  done,  three 
or  four  times  as  much,  to  the  owner  of  the  best  sort  of  hired 
slaves,  as  they  do  to  the  commonest,  stupidest  Irish  domestic 
drudges  at  the  North,  though  the  nominal  wages  by  the  week 
or  year,  in  Virginia,  are  but  little  more  than  in  New  York. 

*  The  Richmtyiid  American  has  a  letter  fiom  Raleigh,  N.C.,  dated  Sept.  18, 
which  says  :  "On  yesterday  morning,  a  beautiful  young  lady,  Miss  Virginia  Frost, 
daughter  of  Austin  Frost,  an  engineer  on  the  Petersburg  and  Weldon  Railroad,  and 
residing  in  this  city,  was  shot  by  a  negro  girl,  and  killed  instantly.  Cause — re- 
proving her  for  insolent  language." 


126  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

The  number  of  servants  usually  found  in  a  Southern  family, 
of  any  pretension,  always  amazes  a  Northern  lady.  In  one 
that  I  have  visited,  there  are  exactly  three  negroes  to  each 
white,  the  negroes  being  employed  solely  in  the  house. 

(A  Southern  lady,  of  an  old  and  wealthy  family,  who  had 
been  for  some  time  visiting  a  friend  of  mine  in  New  York, 
said  to  her,  as  she  was  preparing  to  return  home :  "I  cannot 
tell  you  how  much,  after  being  in  your  house  so  long,  I  dread 
to  go  home,  and  to  have  to  take  care  of  our  servants  again. 
We  have  a  much  smaller  family  of  whites  than  you,  but  we 
have  twelve  servants,  and  your  two  accomplish  a  great  deal 
more,  and  do  their  work  a  great  deal  better  than  our  twelve. 
You  think  your  girls  are  very  stupid,  and  that  they  give  you 
much  trouble :  but  it  is  as  nothing.  There  is  hardly  one~  of 
our  servants  that  can  be  trusted  to  do  the  simplest  work 
without  being  stood  over.  If  I  order  a  room  to  be  cleaned, 
or  a  fire  to  be  made  in  a  distant  chamber,  I  never  can  be  sure 
I  am  obeyed  unless  I  go  there  and  see  for  myself.  If  I  send 
a  girl  out  to  get  anything  I  want  for  preparing  the  dinner, 
she  is  as  likely  as  not  to  forget  what  is  wanted,  and  not  to 
come  back  till  after  the  time  at  which  dinner  should  be  ready. 
A  hand-organ  in  the  street  will  draw  all  my*  girls  out  of  the 
house ;  and  while  it  remains  near  us  I  have  no  more  com- 
mand over  them  than  over  so  many  monkeys.  The  parade 
of  a  military  company  has  sometimes  entirely  prevented  me 
from  having  any  dinner  cooked ;  and  when  the  servants, 
standing  in  the  square  looking  at  the  soldiers,  see  my  husband 
coming  after  them,  they  only  laugh,  and  run  away  to  the 
other  side,  like  playful  children.*  And,  when  I  reprimand 
them,  they  only  say  they  don't  mean  to  do  anything  wrong, 

*  In  the  city  of  Columbia,  S.C.,  the  police  are  required  to  prevent  the  negroes 
from  running  in  this  way  after  the  military.  Any  negro  neglecting  to  leave  the 
"icinity  of  a  parade,  when  ordered  by  a  policeman  or  any  military  officer,  is  re- 
quired, by  the  ordinance,  to  be  whipped  at  the  guard-house. 


VIRGINIA.  127 

or  they  won't  do  it  again,  all  the  time  laughing  as  though  it 
was  all  a  joke.  They  don't  mind  it  at  all.  They  axe  just  as 
playful  and  careless  as  any  wilful  child  ;  and  they  never  will 
do  any  work  if  you  don't  compel  them.") 

The  slave  employer,  if  he  finds  he  has  been  so  unfortunate 
as  to  hire  a  sulky  servant,  who  cannot  be  made  to  work  to  his 
advantage,  has  no  remedy  but  to  solicit  from  his  owner  a  de- 
duction from  the  price  he  has  agreed  to  pay  for  his  labour,  on 
the  same  ground  that  one  would  from  a  livery-stable  keeper, 
if  he  had  engaged  a  horse  to  go  a  journey,  but  found  that  he 
was  not  strong  or  skilful  enough  to  keep  him  upon  the  road. 
But,  if  the  slave  is  the  property  of  his  employer,  and  becomes 
"  rascally,"  the  usual  remedy  is  that  which  the  veterinary 
surgeon  recommended  when  he  was  called  upon  for  advice 
how  to  cure  a  jibing  horse :  "  Sell  him,  my  lord."  "  Rascals  " 
are  "  sent  South  "  from  Virginia,  for  the  cure  or  alleviation  of 
their  complaint,  in  much  greater  numbers  than  consumptives 
are  from  the  more  Northern  States. 

"  How  do  you  manage,  then,  when  a  man  misbehaves,  or 
is  sick  ?"  I  have  been  often  asked  by  Southerners,  in  discus- 
sing this  question. 

If  he  is  sick,  I  simply  charge  against  him  every  half  day 
of  the  time  he  is  off  work,  and  deduct  it  from  his  wages.  If 
he  is  careless,  or  refuses  to  do  what  in  reason  I  demand  of 
him,  I  discharge  him,  paying  him  wages  to  the  time  he 
leaves.  With  new  men  in  whom  I  have  not  confidence,  I 
make  a  written  agreement,  before  witnesses,  on  engaging 
them,  that  will  permit  me  to  do  this.  As  for  "  rascality,"  I 
never  had  but  one  case  of  anything  approaching  to  what  you 
call  so.  A  man  insolently  contradicted  me  in  the  field:  I 
told  him  to  leave  his  job  and  go  to  the  house,  took  hold  and 
finished  it  myself,  then  went  to  the  house,  made  out  a  written 
statement  of  account,  counted  out  the  balance  in  money  due  to 


128  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

him,  gave  Mm  the  statement  and  the  money,  and  told  him  he 
must  go.  He  knew  that  he  had  failed  of  his  duty,  and  that 
the  law  would  sustain  me,  and  we  parted  in  a  friendly  manner, 
he  expressing  regret  that  his  temper  had  driven  him  from  a 
situation  which  had  been  agreeable  and  satisfactory  to  him. 
The  probability  is,  that  this  single  experience  educated  him 
so  far  that  his  next  employer  would  have  no  occasion  to  com- 
plain of  his  "rascality;"  and  I  very  much  doubt  if  any 
amount  of  corporeal  punishment  would  have  improved  his 
temper  in  the  least. 

"  Sogering" — That  slaves  have  to  be  "  humoured  "  a  great 
deal,  and  that  they  very  frequently  cannot  be  made  to  do  their 
master's  will,  I  have  seen  much  evidence.  Not  that  they  often 
directly  refuse  to  obey  an  order,  but  when  they  are  directed 
to  do  anything  for  which  they  have  a  disinclination,  they 
undertake  it  in  such  a  way  that  the  desired  result  is  sure 
not  to  be  accomplished.  They  cannot  be  driven  by  fear  of 
punishment  to  do  that  which  the  labourers  in  free  commu- 
nities do  cheerfully  from  their  sense  of  duty,  self-respect,  or 
regard  for  their  reputation  and  standing  with  their  employer. 
A  gentleman  who  had  some  free  men  in  his  employment  in 
Virginia,  that  he  had  procured  in  New  York,  told  me  that 
he  had  been  astonished,  when  a  dam  that  he  had  been  building 
began  to  give  way  in  a  freshet,  to  see  how  much  more 
readily  than  negroes  they  would  obey  his  orders,  and  do 
their  best  without  orders,  running  into  the  water  waist-deep, 
in  mid-winter,  without  any  hesitation  or  grumbling. 

The  manager  of  a  large  candle-factory  in  London,  in  which 
the  labourers  are  treated  with  an  unusual  degree  of  confidence 
and  generosity,  writes  thus  in  a  report  to  his  directors : — 

"  The  present  year  promises  to  be  a  very  good  one  as  regards  profit,  in 
consequence  of  the  enormous  increase  in  the  demand  for  candles.  No 


VIRGINIA.  129 

more  driving  of  the  men  and  boys,  by  ourselves  and  those  in  authority 
under  us,  would  have  produced  the  sudden  and  very  great  increase  of 
manufacture,  necessary  for  keeping  pace  with  this  demand.  It  lias  been 
effected  only  by  the  hearty  good-will  with  which  the  factory  has  worked, 
the  men  and  boys  making  the  great  extra  exertion,  which  they  saw  to  be 
necessary  to  prevent  our  getting  hopelessly  in  arrears  with  the  orders,  as 
heartily  as  if  the  question  had  been,  how  to  avert  some  difficulty  threaten- 
ing themselves  personally.  One  of  the  foremen  remarked  with  truth,  a 
few  days  back  :  '  To  look  on  them,  one  would  think  each  was  engaged  in 
a  little  business  of  hia  own,  so  as  to  have  only  himself  affected  by  the 
results  of  his  work.'  " 

A  farmer  in  Lincolnshire,  England,  told  me  that  once, 
during  an  extraordinary  harvest  season,  he  had  a  number  of 
labourers  at  work  without  leaving  the  field  or  taking  any 
repose  for  sixty  hours — he  himself  working  with  them,  and 
eating  and  drinking  only  with  them  during  all  the  time.  Such 
services  men  may  give  voluntarily,  from  their  own  regard  to 
the  value  of  property  to  be  saved  by  it,  or  for  the  purpose  of 
establishing  their  credit  as  worth  good  wages  ;  but  to  require 
it  of  slaves  would  be  intensely  cruel,  if  not  actually  impos- 
sible. A  man  can  work  excessively  on  his  own  impulse  as 
much  easier  than  he  can  be  driven  to  by  another,  as  a 
horse  travels  easier  in  going  towards  his  accustomed  stable 
than  in  going  from  it.  I  mean — and  every  man  who  has  ever 
served  as  a  sailor  or  a  soldier  will  know  that  it  is  no  imagi- 
nary effect — that  the  actual  fatigue,  the  waste  of  bodily  energy, 
the  expenditure  of  the  physical  capacity,  is  greater  in  one 
case  than  the  other. 

Sailors  and  soldiers  both,  are  led  by  certain  inducements  to 
place  themselves  within  certain  limits,  and  for  a  certain  time, 
both  defined  by  contract,  in  a  condition  resembling,  in  many 
particulars,  that  of  slaves ;  and,  although  they  are  bound  by 
their  voluntary  contract  and  by  legal  and  moral  conside- 
rations to  obey  orders,  the  fact  that  force  is  also  used  to 
secure  their  obedience  to  their  officers,  scarcely  ever  fails  to 

VOL.  i.  5 


130  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

produce  in  them  the  identical  vices  which  are  complained  of 
in  slaves.  They  obey  the  letter,  but  defeat  the  intention  of 
orders  that  do  not  please  them ;  they  are  improvident,  waste- 
ful, reckless :  they  sham  illness,  and  as  Dr.  Cartwright  gives 
specific  medical  appellations  to  discontent,  laziness,  and 
rascality,  so  among  sailors  and  soldiers,  when  men  suddenly 
find  themselves  ill  and  unable  to  do  their  duty  in  times  of 
peculiar  danger,  or  when  unusual  labour  is  required,  they  are 
humorously  said  to  be  suffering  under  an  attack  of  the  powder- 
fever,  the  cape-fever,  the  ice-fever,  the  coast-fever,  or  the  reef- 
ing-fever.  The  counteracting  influences  to  these  vices,  which 
it  is  the  first  effort  of  every  good  officer  to  foster,  are,  first, 
regard  to  duty ;  second,  patriotism ;  third,  esprit  du  corps, 
or  professional  pride ;  fourth,  self-respect,  or  personal  pride  ; 
fifth,  self-interest,  hope  of  promotion,  or  of  bounty,  or  of 
privileges  in  mitigation  of  their  hard  service,  as  reward  for 
excellence.  Things  are  never  quickly  done  at  sea,  unless 
they  are  done  with  a  will,  or  "  cheerly,"  as  the  sailor's  word 
IH — that  is,  cheerfully.  An  army  is  never  effective  in  the  field 
when  depressed  in  its  morale. 

None  of  these  promptings  to  excellence  can  be  operative, 
except  in  a  very  low  degree,  to  counteract  the  indolent  and 
vicious  tendencies  of  the  Slavery,  much  more  pure  than  the 
slavery  of  the  army  or  the  ship,  by  which  the  exertions  of  the 
Virginia  labourer  are  obtained  for  his  employer. 

Incidents,  trifling  in  themselves,  constantly  betray  to  a 
stranger  what  must  be  the  necessary  consequences.  The  cata- 
strophe of  one  such  occurred  since  I  began  to  write  this  letter. 
I  requested  a  fire  to  be  made  in  my  room,  as  I  was  going 
out  this  morning.  On  my  return,  I  found  a  grand  fire — the 
room  door  having  been  closed  upon  it,  and,  by  the  way,  I  had 
to  obtain  assistance  to  open  it,  the  lock  being  "  out  of  order." 
Just  now,  while  I  was  writing,  down  tumbled  upon  the  floor, 


VIRGINIA.  131 

and  rolled  away  close  to  the  valance  of  the  bed,  half  a  hod- 
full  of  ignited  coal,  which  had  been  so  piled  up  on  the  grate, 
and  left  without  a  fender  or  any  guard,  that  this  result  was 
almost  inevitable.  And  such  carelessness  of  servants  you 
have  momentarily  to  notice. 

But  the  constantly-occurring  delays,  and  the  waste  of  time 
and  labour  that  you  encounter  everywhere,  are  most  annoying 
and  provoking  to  a  stranger.  At  an  hotel,  for  instance,  yon 
go  to  your  room  and  find  no  conveniences  for  washing ;  ring 
and  ring  again,  and  hear  the  office-keeper  ring  again  and 
again.  At  length  two  servants  appear  together  at  your  door, 
get  orders,  and  go  away.  A  quarter  of  an  hour  afterwards, 
perhaps,  one  returns  with  a  pitcher  of  water,  but  no  towels ; 
and  so  on.  Yet  as  the  servants  seem  anxious  to  please,  it  can 
only  result  from  want  of  system  and  order. 

Until  the  negro  is  big  enough  for  his  labour  to  be  plainly 
profitable  to  his  master,  he  has  no  training  to  application  or 
method,  but  only  to  idleness  and  carelessness.  Before  the 
children  arrive  at  a  working  age,  they  hardly  come  under  the 
notice  of  their  owner.  An  inventory  of  them  is  taken  on  the 
plantation  at  Christmas ;  and  a  planter  told  me  that  some- 
times they  escaped  the  attention  of  the  overseer  and  were  not 
returned  at  all,  till  twelve  or  thirteen  years  old.  The  only 
whipping  of  slaves  I  have  seen  in  Virginia,  has  been  of  these 
wild,  lazy  children,  as  they  are  being  broke  in  to  work.  They 
cannot  be  depended  upon  a  minute,  out  of  sight. 

You  will  see  how  difficult  it  would  be,  if  it  were  attempted, 
to  eradicate  the  indolent,  careless,  incogitant  habits  so  formed 
in  youth.  But  it  is  not  systematically  attempted,  and  the 
influences  that  continue  to  act  upon  a  slave  in  the  same 
direction,  cultivating  every  quality  at  variance  with  industry, 
precision,  forethought,  and  providence,  are  innumerable. 

It  is  not  wonderful  that  the  habits  of  the  whole  community 

K  2 


132  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

should  be  influenced  by,  and  be  made  to  accommodate  to  these 
habits  of  its  labourers.  It  irresistibly  afiects  the  whole  in- 
dustrial character  of  the  people  You  may  see  it  in  the 
habits  and  manners  of  the  free  white  mechanics  and  trades- 
people. All  of  these  must  have  dealings  or  be  in  competition 
with  slaves,  and  so  have  their  standard  of  excellence  made 
low,  and  become  accustomed  to,  until  they  are  content  with 
slight;  false,  unsound  workmanship.  You  notice  in  all  classes, 
vagueness  in  ideas  of  cost  and  value,  and  injudicious  and  un- 
necessary expenditure  of  labour  by  a  thoughtless  manner  of 
setting  about  work.*  For  instance,  I  noticed  a  rivet  loose  in 
my  umbrella,  as  I  was  going  out  from  my  hotel  during  a 
shower,  and  stepped  into  an  adjoining  shop  to  have  it  repaired. 

"  I  can't  do  it  in  less  than  half  an  hour,  sir,  and  it  will  be 
worth  a  quarter,"  said  the  locksmith,  replying  to  inquiries. 

"  I  shouldn't  think  it  need  take  you  so  long — it  is  merely 
a  rivet  to  be  tightened." 

"  I  shall  have  to  take  it  all  to  pieces,  and  it  will  take  me 
all  of  half  an  hour." 

"  I  don't  think  you  need  take  it  to  pieces." 

"  Yes,  I  shall — there's  no  other  way  to  do  it." 

"  Then,  as  I  can't  well  wait  so  long,  I  will  not  trouble 
you  with  it;"  and  I  went  back  to  the  hotel,  and  with 
the  fire-poker  did  the  work  myself,  in  less  than  a  minute,  as 
well  as  he  could  have  done  it  in  a  week,  and  went  on  my 
way,  saving  half  an  hour  and  quarter  of  a  dollar,  like  a 
"  Yankee." 

Virginians  laugh  at  us  for  such  things :  but  it  is  because 
they  are  indifferent  to  these  fractions,  or,  as  they  say,  above 
regarding  them,  that  they  cannot  do  their  own  business  with 
the  rest  of  the  world ;  and  all  their  commerce,  as  they  are 

*  A  ship's  officer  told  me  that  he  had  noticed  that  it  took  just  about  three  times 
as  long  to  have  the  same  repairs  made  iu  Norfolk  that  it  did  in  New  York. 


VIRGINIA.  133 

absurdly  complaining,  only  goes  to  enrich  Northern  men. 
A  man  forced  to  labour  under  their  system  is  morally  driven 
to  indolence,  carelessness,  indifference  to  the  results  of  skill, 
heediessness,  inconstancy  of  purpose,  improvidence,  and 
extravagance.  Precisely  the  opposite  qualities  are  those 
which  are  encouraged,  and  inevitably  developed  in  a  man 
who  has  to  make  his  living,  and  earn  all  his  comfort  by  his 
voluntarily-directed  labour. 

"  It  is  with  dogs,"  says  an  authority  on  the  subject,  "  as 
it  is  with  horses  ;  no  work  is  so  well  done  as  that  which  is 
done  cheerfully."  And  it  is  with  men,  both  black  and  white, 
as  it  is  with  hor?e  5  and  with  dogs ;  it  is  even  more  so, 
because  the  strength  and  running  of  a  man  is  less  adapted  to 
being  "broken"  to  the  will  of  another  than  that  of  either 
dogs  or  horses. 

Work  accomplished  in  a  given  time. — Mr.  T.  B.  Griscom, 
of  Petersburg,  Virginia,  stated  to  me,  that  he  once  took  accu- 
rate account  of  the  labour  expended  in  harvesting  a  large 
field  of  wheat;  and  the  result  was  that  one  quarter  of  an 
acre  a  day  was  secured  for  each  able  hand  engaged  in  cra- 
dling, raking,  and  binding.  The  crop  was  light,  yielding  not 
over  six  bushels  to  the  acre.  In  New  York  a  gang  of  fair 
cradlers  and  binders  would  be  expected,  under  ordinary 
circumstances,  to  secure  a  crop  of  wheat,  yielding  from 
twenty  to  thirty  bushels  to  the  acre,  at  the  rate  of  about  two 
acres  a  day  for  each  man. 

Mr.  Griscom  formerly  resided  in  New  Jersey ;  and  since 
living  in  Virginia  has  had  the  superintendence  of  very  large 
agricultural  operations,  conducted  with  slave-labour.  After 
I  had,  in  a  letter,  intended  for  publication,  made  use  of  this 
testimony,  I  called  upon  him  to  ask  if  he  would  object  to  my 
giving  his  name  with  it.  He  was  so  good  as  to  permit  me  to 


134  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

do  so,  and  said  that  I  might  add  that  the  ordinary  waste  in 
harvesting  wheat  in  Virginia,  through  the  carelessness  of  the 
negroes,  beyond  that  which  occurs  in  the  hands  of  ordinary 
Northern  labourers,  is  equal  in  value  to  what  a  Northern 
farmer  would  often  consider  a  satisfactory  profit  on  his  crop. 
He  also  wished  me  to  say  that  it  was  his  deliberate  opinion, 
formed  not  without  much  and  accurate  observation,  that  four 
Virginia  slaves  do  not,  when  engaged  in  ordinary  agricultural 
operations,  accomplish  as  much,  on  an  average,  as  one 
ordinary  free  farm  labourer  in  New  Jersey. 

Mr.  Griscom  is  well  known  at  Petersburg  as  a  man  remark- 
able for  accuracy  and  preciseness  ;  and  no  man's  judgment 
on  this  subject  could  be  entitled  to  more  respect. 

Another  man,  who  had  superintended  labour  .of  the  same 
character  at  the  North  and  in  Virginia,  whom  I  questioned 
closely,  agreed  entirely  with  Mr.  Griscom,  believing  that 
four  negroes  had  to  be,  supported  on  every  farm  in  the  State 
to  accomplish  the  same  work  which  was  ordinarily  done  by  one 
free  labourer  in  New  York. 

A  clergyman  from  Connecticut,  who  had  resided  for  many 
years  in  Virginia,  told  me  that  what  a  slave  expected  to  spend 
a  day  upon,  a  Northern  labourer  would,  he  was  confident, 
usually  accomplish  by  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning. 

In  a  letter  on  this  subject,  most  of  the  facts  given  in  which 
have  been  already  narrated  in  this  volume,  written  from  Vir- 
ginia to  the  New  York  Times,  I  expressed  the  conviction 
that,  at  the  most,  not  more  than  one-half  as  much  labour  was 
ordinarily  accomplished  in  Virginia  by  a  certain  number  of 
slaves,  in  a  given  tune,  as  by  an  equal  number  of  free  labourers 
in  New  York.  The  publication  of  this  letter  induced  a  num- 
ber of  persons  to  make  public  the  conclusions  of  their  own 
experience  or  observations  on  this  subject.  So  far  as  I  know, 
these,  in  every  case,  sustained  my  conclusions,  or,  if  any  doubt 


VIRGINIA.  135 

was  expressed,  it  was  that  I  had  under-estimated  the  superior 
economy  of  free-labour.  As  affording  evidence  more  valuable 
than  my  own  on  this  important  point,  from  the  better  oppor- 
tunities of  forming  sound  judgment,  which  a  residence  at  dif- 
ferent times,  in  both  Virginia  and  a  Free  State  had  given  the 
writers,  I  have  reprinted,  in  an  Appendix,  two  of  these  letters, 
together  with  a  quantity  of  other  testimony  from  Southern 
witnesses  on  this  subject,  which  I  beg  the  reader,  who  has  any 
doubt  of  the  correctness  of  my  information,  not  to  neglect. 

"  Driving" — On  mentioning  to  a  gentleman  in  Virginia 
(who  believed  that  slave-labour  was  better  and  cheaper  than 
free-labour),  Mr.  Griscom's  observation,  he  replied  :  that  with- 
out doubting  the  correctness  of  the  statement  of  that  particular 
instance,  he  was  sure  that  if  four  men  did  not  harvest  more 
than  an  acre  of  wheat  a  day,  they  could  not  have  been  well 
"  driven."  He  knew  that,  if  properly  driven,  threatened  with 
punishment,  and  punished  if  necessary,  negroes  would  do  as 
much  work  as  it  was  possible  for  any  white  man  to  do.  The 
same  gentleman,  however,  at  another  time,  told  me  that 
negroes  were  seldom  punished  ;  not  oftener,  he  presumed,  than 
apprentices 'were,  at  the  North ;  that  the  driving  of  them  was 
generally  left  to  overseers,  who  were  the  laziest  and  most 
worthless  dogs  in  the  world,  frequently  not  demanding  higher 
wages  for  their  services  than  one  of  the  negroes  whom  they 
were  given  to  manage  might  be  hired  for.  Another  gentle- 
man told  me  that  he  would  rather,  if  the  law  would  permit  it, 
have  some  of  his  negroes  for  overseers,  than  any  white  man 
he  had  ever  been  able  to  obtain  in  that  capacity. 

Another  planter,  whom  I  requested  to  examine  a  letter  on 
the  subject,  that  I  had  prepared  for  the  Times,  that  he  might, 
if  he  could,  refute  my  calculations,  or  give  me  any  facts  of  an 
opposite  character,  after  reading  it  said :  "  The  truth  is,  that, 


136  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

in  general,  a  elave  does  not  do  half  the  work  he  easily  might ; 
and  which,  by  being  harsh  enough  with  him,  he  can  be  made 
to  do.  When  I  came  into  possession  of  my  plantation,  I  soon 
found  the  overseer  then  upon  it  was  good  for  nothing,  and 
told  him  I  had  no  further  occasion  for  his  services :  I  then 
went  to  driving  the  negroes  myself.  In  the  morning,  when  I 
went  out,  one  of  them  came  up  to  me  and  asked  what  work 
he  should  go  about.  I  told  him  to  go  into  the  swamp  and 
cut  some  wood.  '  "Well,  massa,'  said  he,  '  s'pose  you  wants 
me  to  do  kordins  we's  been  use  to  doin' ;  ebery  nigger  cut 
a  cord  a  day.'  '  A  cord !  that's  what  you  have  been  used  to 
doing,  is  it  ?'  said  I.  '  Yes,  massa,  dat's  wot  dey  always 
makes  a  nigger  do  roun'  heah — a  cord  a  day,  dat's  allers  de 
task.'  '  Well,  now,  old  man,'*  said  I,  '  you  go  and  cut  me 
two  cords  to-day.'  '  Oh,  massa !  two  cords  !  Nobody  couldn' 
do  dat.  Oh !  massa,  dat's  too  hard !  Nebber  heard  o' 
nobody's  cuttin'  more'n  a  cord  o'  wood  in  a  day,  roun'  heah. 
No  nigger  couldn'  do  it.'  'Well,  old  man,  you  have  two 
cords  of  wood  cut  to-night,  or  to-morrow  morning  you  will 
have  two  hundred  lashes — that's  all  there  is  about  it.  So, 
look  sharp  !'  Of  course,  he  did  it,  and  no  negro  has  ever  cut 
less  than  two  cords  a  day  for  me  since,  though  my  neigh- 
bours still  get  but  one  cord.  It  was  just  so  with  a  great 
many  other  things — mauling  rails :  I  always  have  two 
hundred  rails  mauled  in  a  day;  just  twice  what  it  is  the 
custom,  in  our  country,  to  expect  of  a  negro,  and  just  twice 
as  many  as  my  negroes  had  been  made  to  do  before  I  managed 
them  myself. 

This  only  makes  it  more  probable  that  the  amount  of  labour 
ordinarily  and  generally  performed  by  slaves  in  Virginia  is 

*  "  Old  Man  "  is  a  common  title  of  address  to  any  middle-agred  negro  in  Vir- 
ginia whose  name  is  not  known.  "  Boy  "  and  "  Old  Man  "  may  (>«.•  applied  to  the 
same  person.  Of  course,  in  this  case,  the  slave  is  not  to  be  supposed  to  be  beyond 
his  prime  of  strength. 


VIRGINIA.  137 

very  small,  compared  with  that  done  by  the  labourers  of  the 
Free  States. 

Of  course,  it  does  not  follow  that  all  articles  produced  by 
such  labour  cost  four  times  as  much  as  in  New  York.  There 
are  other  elements  of  cost  besides  labour,  as  land  and  fuel. 
I  could  not  have  a  bushel  of  lime  or  salt  or  coal  dug  for  me 
on  my  farm  at  Staten  Island  at  any  price.  There  are  farms 
in  Virginia  where  either  could  be  obtained  by  an  hour's 
labour. 

Yet  now,  as  I  think  of  all  the  homes  of  which  I  have  had  a 
glimpse,  it  does  not  seem  to  me  that  men  who  are  reputed  to 
be  worth  $400,000  have  equal  advantages  of  wealth  here 
with  those  whose  property  is  valued  at  a  quarter  that,  in  tho 
Eastern  Free  States ;  men  with  #40,000  live  not  as  well  here, 
all  things  considered,  as  men  worth  #10,000  at  the  North ; 
and  the  farmer  who  owns  half  a  dozen  negroes,  and  who  I 
suppose  must  be  called  worth  g4000,  does  not  approach  in 
his  possession  of  civilized  comfort,  the  well-to-do  working 
man  with  us,  who  rents  a  small  house,  and  whose  property 
consists  in  its  furniture,  his  tools,  skill,  and  strength,  and  who 
has  a  few  hundred  dollars  laid  up  in  the  Savings-Bank, 
against  a  rainy  day.  I  do  not  need  to  ask  a  farmer,  then,  any 
longer  why  he  lifts  his  stable  door  into  its  place,  and  fastens 
it  by  leaning  a  log  against  it,  as  he  evidently  has  been  doing 
for  years.  He  cannot  afford  to  buy  or  hire  a  blacksmith  for 
his  little  farm,  and  what  with  going  and  coming,  and  paying 
in  corn  which  must  be  carried  a  number  of  miles  over  scarcely 
passable  roads,  our  thriftiest  farmers  would  wait  for  better 
times,  perhaps,  before  they  would  take  half  the  trouble  or 
give  a  third  as  much  corn  as  the  blacksmith  will  want  for  the 
job,  to  save  a  minute's  time  whenever  they  needed  to  enter 
and  leave  their  stable.  And  so  with  everything.  Any  sub- 
stantial work  costs  so  much,  not  alone  in  money  or  corn 


138  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

directly,  but  in  the  time  and  trouble  of  effecting  the  ex- 
change, that  the  people  make  shift  and  do  without  it.  And 
this  is  evideutly  the  case  not  only  with  the  people  as  in- 
dividuals and  families,  but  in  their  community.  It  is  more 
obvious,  if  possible,  in  the  condition  of  the  houses  of  worship, 
the  schools,  the  roads,  the  public  conveyances  ;  finally,  it 
accounts  for  what  at  first  sight  appears  the  marvellous 
neglect  or  waste  of  the  natural  resources  of  the  country,  and 
it  no  longer  surprises  me  that  a  farmer  points  out  a  coal  bed, 
which  has  never  been  worked,  in  the  bank  of  a  stream  which 
has  never  been  dammed,  in  the  midst  of  a  forest  of  fine  timber 
trees,  with  clay  and  lime  and  sand  convenient,  and  who  yet 
lives  in  a  miserable  smoky  cabin  of  logs  on  a  diet  almost 
exclusively  formed  of  pounded  maize  and  bacon.  Nor,  when 
I  ask,  if  a  little  painstaking  here  and  there  would  not  save 
much  waste  of  fertility,  that  he  should  reply,  that  inasmuch 
as  land  enough,  equally  good,  can  be  bought  for  six  dollars  an 
acre,- the  whole  fertile  matter  can  be  better  lost  than  a  week's 
labour  be  spent  to  save  all  that  will  not  go  into  this  year's 
crop. 

To  this  general  rule  of  make  shift,  there  is  but  rare  excep- 
tion ;  to  the  general  rule  of  the  difficulty  or  expense  of  accom- 
plishing any  ordinary  aim  of  civilized,  in  distinction  from  sav- 
age society,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  there  is  none  in  Vir- 
ginia. There  are,  however,  individuals  and  localities  and  com 
munities  and  enterprises,  upon  which  the  forces  of  wealth — 
including  both  capital  and  talent,  or  energy — seem  to  have 
concentrated,  just  as  we  sometimes  observe  to  be  the  case  at  the 
North.  It  is  true  also,  as  Virginians  are  fond  of  asserting,  that 
absolute  destitution  of  the  means  of  preserving  life  is  more  rare 
than  at  the  North,  but  then  life  is  barely  preserved  with  little 
labour  by  a  naked  savage  in  the  wilderness ;  and  it  must  be 
said  that  a  great  number,  I  almost  think  a  majority,  of  the 


VIRGINIA.  139 

Eastern  Virginians  live  but  one  step  removed  from  what  we 
should  deem  great  destitution  at  the  North.  I  am  sure,  upon 
consideration,  that  this  phrase  would  convey  no  unjust  idea 
of  the  life  of  the  majority  of  the  Virginians,  whom  I  have  seen, 
to  the  people  of  a  New  England  manufacturing  town. 

I  have  said  that  there  are  points  where  the  forces  of  wealth 
seem  to  have  concentrated.  As  a  rule  the  farm-labour  of.  a 
slave  accomplishes  not  half  as  much  hi  a  day,  as  at  the  North ; 
that  of  a  white  man,  probably,  not  a  third ;  that  of  most 
mechanics,  because  of  their  carelessness  and  unfaithfulness, 
much  less  than  of  most  at  the  North,  although  they  are  paid 
more  than  there.  But  it  is  true,  there  are  apparent  excep- 
tions, and  I  have  been  at  times  a  good  deal  puzzled  by  them. 
Generally  a  patient  study  discovers  a  concealed  force.  Most 
commonly,  I  think,  the  explanation  is  given  in  the  converse 
of  the  maxim  that  "  high  wages  are  the  cheapest."  The 
workman  who  commands  much  more  than  the  ruling  rate  of 
wages  is  hard  to  be  got,  and  proverbially  accomplishes  much 
more  for  his  employer  than  the  excess  of  his  wages  indicates. 
The  man  who  cannot  command  the  current  rates  is  the  first 
to  be  dropped  off  on  a  reduction,  the  last  to  be  taken  on  at 
an  increase  of  force.  As  prime  field-hand  slaves  furnish  the 
standard  of  labour  hi  Virginia,  and  the  vast  majority  of 
labourers  are  far  below  that  standard  in  quality,  their  labour 
is  paid  much  less,  and  it  is  of  less  value  relative  to  its  cost. 
Most  of  the  labouring  class  of  Virginia  are  of  a  quality  which 
our  farmers  would  call  "dear  at  any  price."  If,  then,  by 
unusually  skilful  and  energetic  management,  under  favourable 
circumstances,  the  labour  of  slaves,  in  certain  instances,  seems 
to  accomplish  as  much  for  its  course  as  that  of  free  labourers 
at  the  North,  it  does  not  follow  that  results  of  labour  of  all 
kinds  in  Virginia  do  not  cost  ordinarily,  and  on  average, 
twice  or  thrice  as  much  as  in  the  adjoining  Free  States. 


140  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

"Whenever  I  have  found  unusual  efficiency  apparent  in  any 
enterprise  in  Virginia — as  sometimes  in  railroad  construction, 
milling,  and  mining — I  have  thus  far  invariably  found  the  ne- 
groes employed  to  be  picked  men,  and,  when  my  inquiries 
have  been  frankly  answered,  that  they  were  working  under 
some  unusual  stimulus.  For  instance,  a  tobacco  manufacturer 
pays  the  owner  of  a  valuable  negro  $  140  a  year  for  his  ser- 
vices, undertaking  also  to  feed  and  clothe  him  and  otherwise 
care  for  his  permanent  value.  He  then  offers  to  pay  the  negro 
a  certain  rate  per  pound  for  all  the  tobacco  he  works  up  be- 
yond a  certain  quantity.  One  of  the  largest  manufacturers 
informed  me  that  he  paid  seldom  less  than  g  60  a  year,  and 
sometimes  over  g  300,  to  each  slave  he  used,  in  addition 
to  the  rent  paid  their  masters,  which  was  from  8  100  to 
8150  a  year.  I  did  not  learn  the  averages,  but  suppose 
that,  while  the  nominal  wages  for  the  labour  of  these  slaves 
was  but  little  more  than  the  ruling  market-rate  of  g  120  a 
year,  their  labour  really  cost  the  manufacturer  at  least  double 
that.  Hardly  any  of  the  white  labour  employed  in  enter- 
prises which  are  pursued  with  energy  and  efficiency  is  native, 
nor  does  it  ever,  so  far  as  I  have  seen,  seem  to  be  established 
and  at  home. 


VIKQUSIA.  141 


CHAPTEE  V. 

THE   CABOLINA8. 

Norfolk. — In  order  to  be  in  time  for  the  train  of  cars  in 
which  I  was  to  leave  Petersburg  for  Norfolk,  I  was  called  up 
at  an  unusual  hour  in  the  morning  and  provided  with  an 
apology  for  breakfast,  on  the  ground  that  there  had  not  been 
time  to  prepare  anything  better  (though  I  was  charged  full 
time  on  the  bill),  advised  by  the  landlord  to  hurry  when  I 
seated  myself  at  the  table,  and  two  minutes  afterwards 
informed  that,  if  I  remained  longer,  I  should  be  too  late. 

Thanks  to  these  kind  precautions,  I  reached  the  station 
twenty  minutes  before  the  train  left,  and  was  afterwards 
carried,  with  about  fifty  other  people,  at  the  rate  of  ten  miles 
an  hour,  to  City-point,  where  all  were  discharged  under  a 
dirty  shed,  from  which  a  wharf  projected  into  James  River. 

The  train  was  advertised  to  connect  here  with  a  steamboat 
for  Norfolk.  Finding  no  steamboat  at  the  wharf,  I  feared,  at 
first,  that  the  delay  in  leaving  Petersburg  and  the  slow  speed 
upon  the  road  had  detained  us  so  long  that  the  boat  had 
departed  with •.  ut  us.  But  observing  no  disappointment  or 
concern  expressed  by  the  other  passengers,  I  concluded  the 
boat  was  to  call  for  us,  and  had  yet  to  arrive.  An  hour 
passed,  during  which  I  tried  to  keep  warm  by  walking  up  and 
down  the  wharf ;  rain  then  commenced  falling,  and  I 
returned  to  the  crowded  shed  and  asked  a  young  man,  who 
was  engaged  in  cutting  the  letters  G.  W.  B.,  with  a  dirk- 


142  COTTON   AND   SLAVEBY. 

knife,  upon  the  head  of  a  tobacco-cask,  what  was  supposed  to 
have  detained  the  steamboat. 

"  Detained  her  ?  there  aint  no  detention  to  her,  as  I  know- 
on  ;  '  taint  hardly  time  for  her  to  be  along  yet." 

Another  half-hour,  in  fact,  passed,  before  the  steamboat 
arrived,  nor  was  any  impatience  manifested  by  the  passengers. 
All  seemed  to  take  this  hurrying  and  waiting  process  as  the 
regular  thing.  The  women  sat  sullenly  upon  trunks  and 
packing-cases,  and  watched  their  baggage  and  restrained  their 
children ;  the  men  chewed  tobacco  and  read  newspapers  ; 
lounged  first  on  one  side  and  then  on  the  other ;  some  smoked, 
some  walked  away  to  a  distant  tavern ;  some  reclined  on  the 
heaps  of  freight  und  went  to  sleep,  and  a  few  conversed 
quietly  and  intermittently  with  one  another. 

The  shores  of  the  James  River  are  low  and  level — the 
scenery  uninteresting ;  but  frequent  planters'  mansions,  often 
of  considerable  size  and  of  some  elegance,  stand  upon  the 
bank,  and  sometimes  these  have  very  pretty  and  well-kept 
grounds  about  them,  and  the  plantations  surrounding  them  are 
cultivated  with  neatness  and  skill.  Many  men  distinguished 
in  law  and  politics  here  have  their  homes. 

I  was  pleased  to  see  the  appearance  of  enthusiasm  with 
which  some  passengers,  who  were  landed  from  our  boat  at  one 
of  these  places,  were  received  by  two  or  three  well-dressed 
negro  servants,  who  had  come  from  the  house  to  the  wharf  to 
meet  them.  Black  and  white  met  with  kisses  ;  and  the  effort 
of  a  long-haired  sophomore  to  maintain  his  dignity,  was  quite 
ineffectual  to  kill  the  kindness  of  a  fat  mulatto  woman,  who 
joyfully  and  pathetically  shouted,  as  she  caught  him  off  the 
gang-plank,  "  Oh  Massa  George,  is  you  come  back  !"  Field 
negroes,  standing  by,  looked  on  with  their  usual  besotted 
expression,  and  neither  offered  nor  received  greetings. 

Jan.  IQth. — Norfolk  is  a  dirty,  low,  ill-arranged  town,  nearly 


VIRGINIA.  143 

divided  by  a  morass.  It  has  a  single  creditable  public  build- 
ing, a  number  of  fine  private  residences,  and  tlie  polite  society 
is  reputed  to  be  agreeable,  refined,  and  cultivated,  receiving  a 
character  from  the  families  of  the  resident  naval  officers.  It 
has  all  the  immoral  and  disagreeable  characteristics  of  a  large 
seaport,  with  very  few  of  the  advantages  that  we  should  ex- 
pect to  find  as  relief  to  them.  No  lyceum  or  public  libraries, 
no  public  gardens,  no  galleries  of  art,  and  though  there  are 
two  "  Bethels,"  no  "  home  "  for  its  seamen ;  no  public  resorts 
of  healthful  amusement ;  no  place  better  than  a  filthy,  tobacco- 
impregnated  bar-room  or  a  licentious  dance-cellar,  so  far  as  I 
have  been  able  to  learn,  for  the  stranger  of  high  or  low  degree 
to  pass  the  hours  unoccupied  by  business. 

Lieut.  Maury  has  lately  very  well  shown  what  advantages 
were  originally  possessed  for  profitable  commerce  at  this 
point,  in  a  report,  the  intention  of  which  is  to  advocate  the 
establishment  of  a  line  of  steamers  hence  to  Para,  the  port  of 
the  mouth  of  the  Amazon.  He  says — 

"  Norfolk  is  in  a  position  to  have  commanded  the  business  of  the 
Atlantic  sea-board :  it  is  midway  the  coast.  It  has  a  back  country  of 
great  facility  and  resources ;  and,  as  to  approaches  to  the  ocean,  there  is 
no  harbour  from  the  St.  John's  to  the  Rio  Grande  that  has  the  same 
facilities  of  ingress  and  egress  at  all  times  and  in  all  weathers.  *  *  The 
back  country  of  Norfolk  is  all  that  which  is  drained  by  the  Chesapeake 
Bay — embracing  a  line  drawn  along  the  ridge  between  the  Delaware  and 
the  Chesapeake,  thence  northerly,  including  all  of  Pennsylvania  that  is  in 
the  valley  of  the  Susquehanna,  all  of  Maryland  this  side  of  the  mountains, 
the  valleys  of  the  Potomac,  Rappahannock,  York,  and  James  Rivers,  with 
the  Valley  of  the  Roanoke,  and  a  great  part  of  the  State  of  North  Caro- 
lina, whose  only  outlet  to  the  sea  is  by  the  way  of  Norfolk." 

In  a  letter  to  the  National  Intelligencer,  Oct.  31,  1854, 
after  describing  similar  advantages  which  the  town  possesses, 
to  those  enumerated  above,  Lieut.  Maury,  who  is  a  Virginian, 
again  says — 

"  Its  climate  is  delightful.  It  is  of  exactly  that  happy  temperature 
where  the  frosts  of  the  North  bite  not,  and  the  pestilence  of  the  South 
walks  not.  Its  harbour  is  commodious  and  safe  as  safe  can  be.  It  is 


144  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

never  blocked  up  by  ice.  It  has  the  double  advantage  of  an  inner  and  ac 
outer  harbour.  The  inner  harbour  is  as  smooth  as  any  mill-pond.  In  it 
vessels  lie  with  perfect  security,  where  every  imaginable  facility  is  offered 
for  loading  and  unloading."  *  *  *  "  The  back  country,  which  without 
portage  is  naturally  tributary  to  Norfolk,  not  only  surpasses  that  which  is 
tributary  to  New  York  in  mildness  of  climate,  in  fertility  of  soil,  and 
variety  of  production,  but  in  geographical  extent  by  many  square  miles. 
The  proportion  being  as  three  to  one  in  favour  of  the  Virginia  port."  *  *  * 
"  The  natural  advantages,  then,  in  relation  to  the  sea  or  the  back  country, 
are  superior,  beyond  comparison,  to  those  of  New  York." 

There  is  little,  if  any  exaggeration  in  this  estimate ;  yet,  if 
a  deadly,  enervating  pestilence  had  always  raged  here,  this 
Norfolk  could  not  be  a  more  miserable,  sorry  little  seaport 
town  than  it  is.  It  was  not  possible  to  prevent  the  existence 
of  some  agency  here  for  the  transhipment  of  goods,  and  for 
supplying  the  needs  of  vessels,  compelled  by  exterior  circum- 
stances to  take  refuge  in  the  harbour.  Beyond  this  bare 
supply  of  a  necessitous  demand,  and  what  results  from  the 
adjoining  naval  rendezvous  of  the  nation,  there  is  nothing. 

Jan.  18th. — The  "  Great  Dismal  Swamp,"  together  with 
the  smaller  " Dismals"  (for  so  the  term  is  used  here),  of  the 
same  character,  along  the  North  Carolina  coast,  have  hitherto 
been  of  considerable  commercial  importance  as  furnishing  a 
large  amount  of  lumber,  and  especially  of  shingles  for  our 
Northern  use,  as  well  as  for  exportation.  The  district  from 
which  this  commerce  proceeds  is  all  a  vast  quagmire,  the  soil 
being  entirely  composed  of  decayed  vegetable  fibre,  saturated 
and  surcharged  with  water;  yielding  or  quaking  on  the 
surface  to  the  tread  of  a  man,  and  a  large  part  of  it,  during 
most  of  the  year,  half  inundated  with  standing  pools.  It  is 
divided  by  creeks  and  water-veins,  and  in  the  centre  is  a 
pond  six  miles  long  and  three  broad,  the  shores  of  which, 
strange  to  say,  are  at  a  higher  elevation  above  the  sea,  than 
any  other  part  of  the  swamp,  and  yet  are  of  the  same  miry 
consistency.  The  Great  Dismal  is  about  thirty  miles  long 
and  ten  miles  wide,  on  an  average  ;  its  area  about  200,000 


VIBGINIA.  145 

acres.  And  the  little  Dismal,  Aligator,  Catfish,  Green,  and 
other  smaller  swamps,  on  the  shores  of  Albernarle  and  Pam- 
lico,  contain  over  2,000,000  acres. 

The  swamp  belongs  to  a  great  many  proprietors.  Most 
of  them  own  only  a  few  acres,  but  some  possess  large  tracts 
and  use  a  heavy  capital  in  the  business.  One,  whose  ac- 
quaintance I  made,  employed  more  than  a  hundred  hands  in 
getting  out  shingles  alone.  The  value  of  the  swamp  land 
varies  with  the  wood  upon  it,  and  the  facility  with  which  it 
can  be  got  off,  from  12£  cents  to  £  10  an  acre.  It  is  made 
passable  in  any  desired  direction  in  which  trees  grow,  by 
laying  logs,  cut  in  lengths  of  eight  or  ten  feet,  parallel  and 
against  each  other  on  the  surface  of  the  soil,  or  "  sponge,"  as 
it  is  called.  Mules  and  oxen  are  used  to  some  extent  upon 
these  roads,  but  transportation  is  mainly  by  hand  to  the 
creeks,  or  to  ditches  communicating  with  them  or  the  canal. 

Except  by  those  log-roads,  the  swamp  is  scarcely  passable 
in  many  parts,  owing  not  only  to  the  softness  of  the  sponge, 
but  to  the  obstruction  caused  by  innumerable  shrubs,  vines, 
creepers,  and  briars,  which  often  take  entire  possession  of  the 
surface,  forming  a  dense  brake  or  jungle.  This,  however,  is 
sometimes  removed  by  fires,  which  of  late  years  have  been 
frequent  and  very  destructive  to  the  standing  timber.  Tho 
most  common  shrubs  are  various  smooth-leafed  evergreens, 
and  their  dense,  bright,  glossy  foliage  was  exceedingly  beau- 
tiful in  the  wintry  season  of  my  visit.  There  is  a  good  deal 
of  game  in  the  swamp — bears  and  wild  cats  are  sometimes 
shot,  raccoons  and  opossums  are  plentiful,  and  deer  are  found 
in  the  drier  parts  and  on  the  outskirts.  The  fishing,  in  the 
interior  waters,  is  also  said  to  be  excellent. 

Nearly  all  the  valuable  trees  have  now  been  cut  off  from  the 
swamp.  The  whole  ground  has  been  frequently  gone  over, 
the  best  timber  selected  and  removed  at  each  time,  leaving 

VOL.  L  L 


146  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

the  remainder  standing  thinly,  so  that  the  wind  has  more  effect 
upon  it ;  and  much  of  it,  from  the  yielding  of  the  soft  soil,  is 
uprooted  or  broken  off.  The  fires  have  also  greatly  injured  it. 
The  principal  stock,  now  worked  into  shingles,  is  obtained 
from  beneath  the  surface — old  trunks  that  have  been  preserved 
by  the  wetness  of  the  soil,  and  that  are  found  by  "sound- 
ing "  with  poles,  and  raised  with  hooks  or  pikes  by  the  negroes. 

The  quarry  is  giving  ou-t,  however ;  and  except  that  lumber, 
and  especially  shingles,  have  been  in  great  demand  at  high 
prices  of  late,  the  business  would  be  almost  at  an  end.  As  it  is, 
the  principal  men  engaged  in  it  are  turning  their  attention  to 
other  and  more  distant  supplies.  A  very  large  purchase  had 
been  made  by  one  company  in  the  Florida  everglades,  and  a 
schooner,  with  a  gang  of  hands  trained  in  the  "  Dismals,"  was 
about  to  sail  from  Deep  Creek,  for  this  new  field  of  operations. 

The  labour  in  the  swamp  is  almost  entirely  done  by  slaves  ; 
and  the  way  in  which  they  are  managed  is  interesting  and 
instructive.  They  are  L^.'.-jtly  hired  by  their  employers  at  a 
rent,  perhaps  of  one  huiv.ireJ  dollars  a  year  for  each,  paid  to 
their  owners.  They  spend  one  or  two  months  of  the  winter 
— when  it  is  too  wet  to  work  in  the  swamp — at  the  residence 
of  their  master.  At  this  period  little  or  no  work  is  required 
of  them ;  their  time  is  their  own,  and  if  they  can  get  any 
employment,  they  will  generally  keep  for  themselves  what 
they  are  paid  for  it.  When  it  is  sufficiently  dry— usually 
early  in  February — they  go  into  the  swamp  in  gangs,  each 
gang  under  a  white  overseer.  Before  leaving,  they  are  all 
examined  and  registered  at  the  Court  House  ;  and  "passes," 
good  for  a^year,  are  given  them,  in  which  their  features  and 
the  marks  upon  their  persons  are  minutely  described.  Each 
man  is  furnished  with  a  quantity  of  provisions  and  clothing, 
of  which,  as  well  as  of  all  that  he  afterwards  draws  from  the 
stock  in  the  hands  of  the  overseer,  an  exact  account  is  kept. 


VIRGINIA.  147 

Arrived  at  their  destination,  a  rude  camp  is  made ;  huts  of 
logs,  poles,  shingles,  and  boughs  being  built,  usually,  upon 
some  places  where  shingles  have  been  worked  before,  and  in 
which  the  shavings  have  accumulated  in  small  hillocks  upon 
the  soft  surface  of  the  ground. 

The  slave  lumberman  then  lives  measurably  as  a  free  man  ; 
hunts,  fishes,  eats,  drinks,  smokes  and  sleeps,  plays  and 
works,  each  when  and  as  much  as  he  pleases.  It  is  only 
required  of  him  that  he  shall  have  made,  after  half  a  year 
has  passed,  such  a  quantity  of  shingles  as  shall  be  worth  to 
his  master  so  much  money  as  is  paid  to  his  owner  for  his 
services,  and  shall  refund  the  value  of  the  clothing  and  pro- 
visions he  has  required. 

No  "  driving  "  at  his  work  is  attempted  or  needed.  No 
force  is  used  to  overcome  the  indolence  peculiar  to  the  negro. 
The  overseer  merely  takes  a  daily  account  of  the  number  of 
shingles  each  man  adds  to  the  general  stock,  and  employs 
another  set  of  hands,  with  mules,  to  draw  them  to  a  point 
from  which  they  can  be  shipped,  and  where  they  are,  from 
time  to  time,  called  for  by  a  schooner. 

At  the  end  of  five  months  the  gang  returns  to  dry  land, 
and  a  statement  of  account  from  the  overseer's  book  is  drawn 
up,  something  like  the  following  : — 

Sam  Bo  to  John  Doe,  Dr. 

Feb.  1.   To  clothing ''outfit #5  00 

Mar.  10.  To  clothing,  as  per  overseer's  account  2  25 
Feb.    1.  To  bacon  and  meal  (outfit)  .      .      «     .  19  00 
July  1.  To  stores  drawn  in  swamp,  as  per  over- 
seer's account i  75 

July  1.  To  half-yearly  hire,  paid  his  owner      .  50  00 


£8100 

Per  Contra,  Cr. 
July  1.  By  10,000   shingles,  as  per  overseer's 

account,  lOc 100  00 

Balance  due  Samho —   $19  00 

L  2 


148  COTTON    AND    SLAVEBY. 

which  is  immediately  paid  him,  and  of  which,  together  with 
the  proceeds  of  sale  of  peltry  which  he  has  got  while  in  the 
swamp,  he  is  always  allowed  to  make  use  as  his  own.  No 
liquor  is  sold  or  served  to  the  negroes  in  the  swamp,  and,  as 
their  first  want  when  they  come  out  of  it  is  an  excitement, 
most  of  their  money  goes  to  the  grog-shops. 

After  a  short  vacation,  the  whole  gang  is  taken  in  the 
schooner  to  spend  another  five  months  in  the  swamp  as  before. 
If  they  are  good  hands  and  work  steadily,  they  will  com- 
monly be  hired  again,  and  so  continuing,  will  spend  most  of 
their  lives  at  it.  They  almost  invariably  have  excellent 
health,  as  have  also  the  white  men  engaged  in  the  business. 
They  all  consider  the  water  of  the  "  Dismals "  to  have  a 
medicinal  virtue,  and  quite  probably  it  is  a  mild  tonic.  It 
is  greenish  in  colour,  and  I  thought  I  detected  a  slightly 
resinous  taste  upon  first  drinking  it.  Upon  entering  the 
swamp  also,  an  agreeable  resinous  odour,  resembling  that  of 
a  hemlock  forest,  was  perceptible. 

The  negroes  working  in  the  swamp  were  more  sprightly 
and  straightforward  in  their  manner  and  conversation  than 
any  field-hand  plantation  negroes  that  I  saw  at  the  South ; 
two  or  three  of  their  employers  with  whom  I  conversed  spoke 
well  of  them,  as  compared  with  other  slaves,  and  made  ao 
complaints  of  "  rascality  "  or  laziness. 

One  of  those  gentlemen  told  me  of  a  remarkable  case  of 
providence  and  good  sense  in  a  negro  that  he  had  employed 
in  the  swamp  for  many  years.  He  was  so  trustworthy,  that 
he  had  once  let  him  go  to  New  York  as  cook  of  a  lumber 
schooner,  when  he  could,  if  he  had  chosen  to  remain  there, 
have  easily  escaped  from  slavery. 

Knowing  that  he  must  have  accumulated  considerable 
money,  his  employer  suggested  to  him  that  he  might  buy  his 
freedom,  and  ho  immediately  determined  to  do  so.  But 
when,  on  applying  to  his  owner,  he  was  asked  g  500  for  him- 


VIRGINIA. NORTH   CAROLINA. 

self,  a  price  which,  considering  he  was  an  elderly  man,  he 
thought  too  much,  he  declined  the  bargain ;  shortly  after- 
wards, however,  he  came  to  his  employer  again,  and  said 
that  although  he  thought  his  owner  was  mean  to  set  so  high 
a  price  upon  him,  he  had  been  thinking  that  if  he  was  to  be  an 
old  man  he  would  rather  be  his  own  master,  and  if  he  did  not 
live  long,  his  money  would  not  be  of  any  use  to  him  at  any 
rate,  and  so  he  had  concluded  he  would  make  the  purchase.  I 

He  did  so,  and  upon  collecting  the  various  sums  that  he 
had  loaned  to  white  people  in  the  vicinity,  he  was  found  to 
have  several  hundred  dollars  more  than  was  necessary.  With 
the  surplus,  he  paid  for  his  passage  to  Liberia,  and  bought  a 
handsome  outfit.  When  he  was  about  to  leave,  my  in-  * 
fonnant  had  made  him  a  present,  and,  in  thanking  him  for  it/ 
the  free  man  had  said  that  the  first  thing  he  should  do,  on 
reaching  Liberia,  would  be  to  learn  to  write,  and,  as  soon  as 
he  could,  he  would  write  to  him  how  he  liked  the  country : 
he  had  been  gone  yet  scarce  a  year,  and  had  not  been  heard 
from. 


Deep  River,  Jan.  18th. — The  shad  and  herring  fisheries 
upon  the  sounds  and  inlets  of  the  North  Carolina  coast  are 
an  important  branch  of  industry,  and  a  source  of  considerable 
wealth.  The  men  employed  in  them  are  mainly  negroes, 
slave  and  free ;  and  the  manner  in  which  they  are  conducted 
is  interesting,  and  in  some  respects  novel. 

The  largest  sweep  seines  in  the  world  are  used.  The 
gentleman  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  the  most  of  my  infor- 
.mation,  was  the  proprietor  of  a  seine  over  two  miles  in  length. 
It  was  manned  by  a  force  of  forty  negroes,  most  of  whom 
were  hired  at  a  dollar  a  day,  for  the  fishing  season,  which 
usually  commences  between  the  tenth  and  fifteenth  of  March, 


150  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

and  lasts  fifty  days.  In  favourable  years  the  profits  are  very 
great.  In  extremely  unfavourable  years  many  of  the  pro- 
prietors are  made  bankrupt. 

Cleaning,  curing,  and  packing  houses  are  erected  on  the 
shore,  as  near  as  they  conveniently  may  be  to  a  point  on  the 
beach,  suitable  for  drawing  the  seine.  Six  or  eight  wind- 
lasses, worked  by  horses,  are  fixed  along  the  shore,  on  each 
side  of  this  point.  There  are  two  large  seine-boats,  in  each 
of  which  there  is  one  captain,  two  seine-tenders,  and  eight  or 
ten  oarsmen.  In  making  a  cast  of  the  net,  one-half  of  it  is 
arranged  on  the  stern  of  each  of  the  boats,  which,  having 
previously  been  placed  in  a  suitable  position — perhaps  a  mile 
off  shore,  in  front  of  the  buildings — are  rowed  from  each 
other,  the  captains  steering,  and  the  seine-tenders  throwing 
off,  until  the  seine  is  all  cast  between  them.  This  is  usually 
done  in  such  a  way  that  it  describes  the  arc  of  a  circle,  the 
chord  of  which  is  diagonal  with  the  shore.  The  hawsers 
attached  to  the  ends  of  the  seine  are  brought  first  to  the 
outer  windlasses,  and  are  wound  in  by  the  horses.  As  the 
operation  of  gathering  in  the  seine  occupies  several  hours,  the 
boat  hands,  as  soon  as  they  have  brought  the  hawsers  to  the 
shore,  draw  their  boats  up,  and  go  to  sleep. 

As  the  wings  approach  the  shore,  the  hawsers  are  from 
time  to  time  carried  to  the  other  windlasses,  to  contract  the 
sweep  of  the  seine.  After  the  gaff  of  the  net  reaches  the 
shore,  lines  attached  toward  the  bunt  are  carried  to  the  wind- 
lasses, and  the  boats'  crews  are  awakened,  and  arrange  the 
wing  of  the  seine,  as  fast  as  it  comes  in,  upon  the  boat  again. 
Of  course,  as  the  cast  was  made  diagonally  with  the  shore, 
one  wing  is  beached  before  the  other.  By  the  time  the  fish 
in  the  bunt  have  been  secured,  both  boats  are  ready  for 
another  cast,  and  the  boatmen  proceed  to  make  it,  while  the 
shore  gang  is  engaged  in  sorting  and  gutting  the  "  take." 


VIRGINIA. — NORTH    CAROLINA.  151 

My  informant,  who  had  g  50,000  invested  in  his  fishing 
establishment,  among  other  items  of  expenditure,  mentioned 
that  he  had  used  seventy  kegs  of  gunpowder  the  previous 
year,  and  amused  himself  for  a  few  moments  with  letting  me 
try  to  conjecture  in  what  way  villanous  saltpetre  could  be 
put  to  use  in  taking  fish. 

There  is  evidence  of  a  subsidence  of  this  coast,  in  many 
places,  at  a  comparatively  recent  period ;  many  stumps  of 
trees,  evidently  standing  where  they  grew,  being  found  some 
way  below  the  present  surface,  in  the  swamps  and  salt 
marshes.  Where  the  formation  of  the  shore  and  the  surface, 
or  the  strength  of  the  currents  of  water,  which  have  flowed 
over  the  sunken  land,  has  been  such  as  to  prevent  a  later 
deposit,  the  stumps  of  great  cypress  trees,  not  in  the  least 
decayed,  protrude  from  the  bottom  of  the  sounds.  These 
would  obstruct  the  passage  of  a  net,  and  must  be  removed 
from  a  fishing-ground. 

The  operation  of  removing  them  is  carried  on  during  the 
summer,  after  the  close  of  the  fishing  season.  The  position 
of  a  stump  having  been  ascertained  by  divers,  two  large  seine- 
boats  are  moored  over  it,  alongside  each  other,  and  a  log  is 
laid  across  them,  to  which  is  attached  perpendicularly,  between 
the  boats,  a  spar,  fifteen  feet  long.  The  end  of  a  chain  is 
hooked  to  the  log,  between  the  boats,  the  other  end  of  which 
is  fastened  by  divers  to  the  stump  which  "it  is  wished  to  raise. 
A  double-purchase  tackle  leads  from  the  end  of  the  spar  to  a 
ring-bolt  in  the  bows  of  one  of  the  boats,  with  the  fall  leading 
aft,  to  be  bowsed  upon  by  the  crews.  The  mechanical  advan- 
tages of  the  windlass,  the  lever,  and  the  pulley  being  thus 
combined,  the  chain  is  wound  on  to  the  log,  until  either  the 
stump  yields,  and  is  brought  to  the  surface,  or  the  boats' 
gunwales  are  brought  to  the  water's  edge. 

When  the  latter  is  the  case,  and  the  stump  still  remains 


152  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

firm,  a  new  power  must  be  applied.  A  spile,  pointed  with 
iron,  six  inches  in  diameter,  and  twenty  feet  long,  is  set  upon 
the  stump  by  a  diver,  who  goes  down  with  it,  and  gives 
it  that  direction  which,  in  his  judgment,  is  best,  and  driven 
into  it  by  mauls  and  sledges,  a  scaffold  being  erected  between 
the  boats  for  men  to  stand  on  while  driving  it.  In  very 
large  stumps,  the  spile  is  often  driven  till  its  top  reaches  the 
water ;  so  that  when  it  is  drawn  out,  a  cavity  is  left  in  the 
stump,  ten  feet  in  depth.  A  tube  is  now  used,  which  is 
made  by  welding  together  three  musket-barrels,  with  a  breech 
at  one  end,  in  which  is  the  tube  of  a  percussion  breech,  with 
the  ordinary  position  of  the  nipple  reversed,  so  that  when  it 
is  screwed  on  with  a  detonating  cap,  the  latter  will  protrude 
within  the  barrel.  This  breech  is  then  inserted  within  a 
cylindrical  tin  box,  six  inches  in  diameter,  and  varying  in 
length,  according  to  the  supposed  strength  of  the  stump ;  and 
soap  or  tallow  is  smeared  about  the  pkce  of  insertion  to 
make  it  water  tight.  The  box  contains  several  pounds  of 
gunpowder. 

The  long  iron  tube  is  elevated,  and  the  diver  goes  down 
again,  and  guides  it  into  the  hole  in  the  stump,  with  the 
canister  in  his  arms.  It  has  reached  the  bottom — the  divor 
has  come  up,  and  is  drawn  into  one  of  the  boats — an  iron  rod 

is  inserted  in  the  mouth  of  the  tube — all  hands  crouch  low 

? 

and  hold  hard — the  rod  is  let  go — crack ! — whoo — oosch  ! 
The  sea  swells,  boils,  and  breaks  upward.  If  the  boats  do 
not  rise  with  it,  they  must  sink  ;  if  they  rise,  and  the  chain 
does  not  break,  the  stump  must  rise  with  them.  At  the  same 
moment  the  heart  of  cypress  is  riven ;  its  furthest  rootlets 
quiver ;  the  very  earth  trembles,  and  loses  courage  to  hold  it ; 
"  up  comes  the  stump,  or  down  go  the  niggers  !" 

The  success  of  the  operation  evidently  depends  mainly  on 
the  discretion  and  skill  of  the  diver.  My  informant,  who 


•VIRGINIA. — NORTH   CAROLINA.  153 

thought  that  he  removed  last  summer  over  a  thousand 
stumps,  using  for  the  purpose  seventy  kegs  of  gunpowder, 
employed  several  divers,  all  of  them  negroes.  Some  of  them 
could  remain  under  water,  and  work  there  to  better  advantage 
than  others ;  but  all  were  admirably  skilful,  and  this,  much 
in  proportion  to  the  practice  and  experience  they  had  had 
They  wear,  when  diving,  three  or  four  pairs  of  flannel  drawers 
and  shirts.  Nothing  is  required  of  them  when  they  are  not 
wanted  to  go  to  the  bottom,  and,  while  the  other  hands  are 
at  work,  they  may  lounge,  or  go  to  sleep  in  the  boat,  which 
they  do,  in  their  wet  garments.  Whenever  a  diver  displays 
unusual  hardihood,  skill,  or  perseverance,  he  is  rewarded  with 
whisky ;  or,  as  they  are  commonly  allowed,  while  diving,  as 
much  whisky  as  they  want,  with  money.  Each  of  them 
would  generally  get  every  day  from  a  quarter  to  half  a  dollar  in 
this  way,  above  the  wages  paid  for  them,  according  to  the 
skill  and  industry  with  which  they  had  worked.  On  this 
account,  said  my  informant,  "  the  harder  the  work  you  give 
them  to  do,  the  better  they  like  it."  His  divers  very 
frequently  had  intermittent  fevers,  but  would  very  rarely  let 
this  keep  them  out  of  their  boats.  Even  in  the  midst  of  a 
severe  "shake,"  they  would  generally  insist  that  they  were 
"  well  enough  to  dive." 

What !  slaves  eager  to  work,  and  working  cheerfully,  earn- 
estly, and  skilfully  ?  Even  so.  Being  for  the  time  managed 
as  freemen,  their  ambition  stimulated  by  wages,  suddenly 
they,  too,  reveal  sterling  manhood,  and  honour  their  Creator. 

Norfolk,  Jan.  19th. — The  market  gardens  at  Norfolk — 
which  have  been  profitably  supplying  New  York  markets  with 
poor  early  vegetables,  and  half-hardy  lujftuies  for  several  years 
past — do  not  differ  at  all  from  market  gardens  elsewhere. 
They  are  situated  in  every  direction  for  many  miles  from 


154  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

the  city,  offering  a  striking  contrast,  in  all  respects,  to  the 
large,  old-fashioned  Virginian  farms,  among  which  they  are 
scattered. 

On  one  of  the  latter,  of  over  a  thousand  acres,  a  friend  told 
me  he  had  seen  the  negroes  moving  long,  strawy  manure 
with  shovels,  and  upon  inquiry  found  there  was  not  a  dung- 
fork  on  the  place. 

The  soil  is  a  poor  sandy  loam,  and  manure  is  brought  by 
shipping  from  Baltimore,  as  well  as  from  the  nearer  towns,  to 
enrich  it.  The  proprietors  of  the  market  gardens  are  nearly 
all  from  New  Jersey,  and  brought  many  of  their  old  white 
labourers  with  them.  Except  at  picking-time,  when  every- 
thing possessing  fingers  is  in  demand,  they  do  not  often  em- 
ploy slaves. 

The  Norfolk  Argus  says  that,  from  about  the  20th  June  to 
the  20th  July,  from  2,000  to  2,500  barrels  of  potatoes  will 
be  shipped  daily  from  that  city  to  Philadelphia  and  New 
York,  together  with  300  to  500  barrels  of  cucumbers,  musk- 
melons,  etc. 

Norfolk,  Jan.  20^. — While  driving  a  chaise  from  Ports- 
mouth to  Deep  River,  I  picked  up  on  the  road  a  jaded-looking 
negro,  who  proved  to  be  a  very  intelligent  and  good-natured 
fellow.  His  account  of  the  lumber  business,  and  of  the  life 
of  the  lumbermen  in  the  swamps,  in  answer  to  my  questions, 
was  clear  and  precise,  and  was  afterwards  verified  by  infor- 
mation obtained  from  his  master. 

He  told  me  that  his  name  was  Joseph,  that  he  belonged 
(as  property)  to  a  church  in  one  of  the  inland  counties,  and 
that  he  was  hired  from  the  trustees  of  the  church  by  his 
present  master.  He -expressed  contentment  with  his  lot,  but 
great  unwillingness  to  be  sold  to  go  on  to  a  plantation.  He 
liked  to  "  mind  himself,"  as  he  did  in  the  swamps.  Whether 


VIRGINIA. NORTH   CAROLINA.  155 

he  would  still  more  prefer  to  be  entirely  his  own  master,  I 
did  not  ask. 

The  Dismal  Swamps  are  noted  places  of  refuge  for  run- 
away negroes.  They  were  formerly  peopled  in  this  way  much 
more  than  at  present ;  a  systematic  hunting  of  them  with 
dogs  and  guns  having  been  made  by  individuals  who  took  it 
up  as  a  business  about  ten  years  ago.  Children  were  born, 
bred,  lived,  and  died  here.  Joseph  Church  told  me  he  had 
seen  skeletons, "and  had  helped  to  bury  bodies  recently  dead. 
There  were  people  in  the  swamps  still,  he  thought,  that  were 
the  children  of  runaways,  and  who  had  been  runaways  them- 
selves "  all  their  lives."  What  a  life  it  must  be !  born  out- 
laws ;  educated  self-stealers ;  trained  from  infancy  to  be 
constantly  in  dread  of  the  approach  of  a  white  man  as  a 
thing  more  fearful  than  wild  cats  or  serpents,  or  even 
starvation. 

There  can  be  but  few,  however,  if  any,  of  these  "  natives  " 
left.  They  cannot  obtain  the  means  of  supporting  life  with- 
out coming  often  either  to  the  outskirts  to  steal  from  the 
plantations,  or  to  the  neighbourhood  of  the  camps  of  the 
lumbermen.  They  depend  much  upon  the  charity  or  the 
wages  given  them  by  the  latter.  The  poorer  white  men, 
owning  small  tracts  of  the  swamps,  will  sometimes  employ 
them,  and  the  negroes  frequently.  In  the  hands  of  either 
they  are  liable  to  be  betrayed  to  the  negro-hunters.  Joseph 
said  that  they  had  huts  in  "  back  places,"  hidden  by  bushes, 
and  difficult  of  access ;  he  had,  apparently,  been  himself 
quite  intimate  with  them.  When  the  shingle  negroes  em- 
ployed them,  he  told  me,  they  made  them  get  up  logs  for 
them,  and  would  give  them  enough  to  eat,  and  some  clothes, 
and  perhaps  two  dollars  a  month  in  money.  But  some, 
when  they  owed  them  money,  would  betray  them,  instead  of 
paying  them. 


156  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

I  asked  if  they  were  ever  shot.  "  Oh,  yes,"  he  said ; 
"  when  the  hunters  saw  a  runaway,  if  he  tried  to  get  from 
them,  they  would  call  out  to  him,  that  if  he  did  not  stop 
they  would  shoot,  and  if  he  did  not,  they  would  shoot,  and 
sometimes  kill  him. 

"  But  some  on  'em  would  rather  lie  shot  than  be  took,  sir,'' 
he  added,  simply. 

A  farmer  living  near  the  swamp  confirmed  this  account, 
and  said  he  knew  of  three  or  four  being  shot  in  one  day. 

No  particular  breed  of  dogs  is  needed  for  hunting  negroes  : 
blood-hounds,  fox-hounds,  bull-dogs,  and  curs  were  used,* 
and  one  white  man  told  me  how  they  were  trained  for  it,  as 
if  it  were  a  common  or  notorious  practice.  They  are  shut 
up  when  puppies,  and  never  allowed  to  see  a  negro  except 
while  training  to  catch  him.  A  negro  is  made  to  run  from 
them,  and  they  are  encouraged  to  follow  him  until  he  gets 
into  a  tree,  when  meat  is  given  them.  Afterwards  they 
learn  to  follow  any  particular  negro  by  scent,  and  then  a 
shoe  or  a  piece  of  clothing  is  taken  off  a  negro,  and  they 
learn  to  find  by  scent  who  it  belongs  to,  and  to  tree  him,  etc. 
All  this  the  farmer  told  me.  I  don't  think  doss  are  em- 

O 

ployed  in  the  ordinary  "  driving  "  in  the  swamp,  but  only  to 
overtake  some  particular  slave,  as  soon  as  possible,  after  it  is 
discovered  that  he  has  fled  from  a  plantation.  Joseph  said 
that  it  was  easy  for  the  drivers  to  tell  a  fugitive  from  a 
regularly  employed  slave  in  the  swamps. 

"  How  do  they  know  them  ?" 

"  How  do  you  mean  ?" 

"  Oh,  dey  looks  strange." 

"  Skeared  like,  you  know,  sir,  and  kind  o'  strange,  cause 

*  I  have  since  seen  a  pack  of  negro-dogs,  chained  in  coupler,  and  probably  going 
to  the  field.  They  were  all  of  a  breed,  and  in  appearance  between  a  Scotch  stag- 
hound  and  a  fox-hound. 


VIRGINIA — NORTH  CAROLINA.  157 

dey  hasn't   much   to   eat,  and   ain't   decent    [not   decently 
clothed],  like  we  is." 

When  the  hunters  take  a  negro  who  has  not  a  pass,  or 
"  free  papers,"  and  they  don't  know  whose  slave  he  is,  they 
confine  him  in  jail,  and  advertise  him.  If  no  one  claims  him 
within  a  year  he  is  sold  to  the  highest  bidder,  at  a  public 
sale,  and  this  sale  gives  title  in  law  against  any  subsequent 
claimant. 

The  form  of  the  advertisements  used  in  such  cases  is 
shown  by  the  following,  which  are  cut  from  North  Carolina 
newspapers,  published  in  counties  adjoining  the  Dismals. 
Such  advertisements  are  quite  as  common  in  the  papers  of 
many  parts  of  the  Slave  States  as  those  of  horses  or  cattle 
"  Taken  up  "  in  those  of  the  North : — 


WAS  TAKEN  UP  and  committed  to  the  Jail  of  Halifax  County,  on  the 
26th  day  of  May,  a  dark  coloured  boy,  who  says  his  name  is  JORDAN 
ARTIS.  Said  boy  says  he  was  born  free,  and  was  bound  out  to  William 
Beale,  near  Murfreesboro',  Hertford  County,  N.C  ,  and  is  now  21  years  of 
age.  The  owner  is  requested  to  come  forward,  prove  property,  pay 
charges,  and  take  the  said  boy  away,  within  the  time  prescribed  by  law  ; 
otherwise  he  will  be  dealt  with  as  the  law  directs. 

O.  P.  SHELL,  Jailer. 
Halifax  County,  N.C.,  June  8, 1855. 


TAKEN  UP, 

AND  COMMITTED  to  the  Jail  of  New  Hanover  County,  on  the  5th  of 
March,  1855,  a  Negro  Man,  who  says  his  name  is  EDWAKD 
LLOYD.  Said  negro  is  about  35  or  40  years  old,  light  complected,  5  feet 
9J  inches  high,  slim  built,  upper  fore  teeth  out ;  says  he  is  a  Mason  by 
trade,  that  he  ia  free,  and  belongs  in  Alexandria,  Va.,  that  he  served  his 
time  at  the  Mason  business  under  Mr.  Wm.  Stuart,  of  Alexandria.  He  was 
taken  up  and  committed  as  a  runaway.  His  owner  is  notified  to  corne  for- 
ward, prove  property,  pay  charge*,  and  take  him  away,  or  he  will  be  dealt 
with  as  the  law  directs.  E.  D.  HALL,  Sheriff. 


158  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

In  the  same  paper  with  the  last  are  four  advertisements  of 
Runaways :  two  of  them,  as  specimens,  I  transcribe. 


REWARD. 

RAN  AWAY  from  the  employ  of  Messrs.  Holmes  &  Brown,  on  Sunday 
>  night,  20th  inst.,  a  negro  man  named  YATNEY  or  MEDICINE, 
belonging  to  the  undersigned.  Said  boy  is  stout  built,  about  5  feet  4  inches 
high,  22  years  old,  and  dark  complected,  and  has  the  appearance,  when 
walking  slow,  of  one  leg  being  a  little  shorter  than  the  other.  He  was 
brought  from  Chapel  Hill,  and  is  probably  lurking  either  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  that  place,  or  Beatty's  Bridge,  in  Bladen  County. 

The  above  reward  will  be  paid  for  evidence  sufficient  to  convict  any 
white  person  of  harbouring  him,  or  a  reward  of  $25  for  his  apprehension 
and  confinement  in  any  Jail  in  the  State,  so  that  I  can  get  him,  or  for  his 
delivery  to  me  in  Wilmington. 

J.  T.  SCHONWALD. 

RUNAWAY 

FROM  THE  SUBSCRIBER,  on  the  27th  of  May,  his  negro  boy  ISOME. 
Said  boy  is  about  21  years  of  age ;  rather  light  complexion  ;  very 
coarse  hair  ;  weight  about  150  Ibs. ;  height  about  5  feet  6  or  7  inches ;  rather 
pleasing  countenance  ;  quick  and  easy  spoken ;  rather  a  downcast  look. 
It  is  thought  that  he  is  trying  to  make  his  way  to  Franklin  county,  N.C., 
where  he  was  hired  in  Jan.  last,  of  Thomas  J.  Black  well.  A  liberal 
Reward  will  be  given  for  his  confinement  in  any  Jail  in  North  or  South 
Carolina,  or  to  any  one  who  will  give  information  where  lie  can  be  found. 

W.  H.  PRIVETT, 

Canwayboro',  S.C. 

Handbills,  written  or  printed,  offering  rewards  for  the 
return  of  runaway  slaves,  are  to  be  constantly  seen  at  nearly 
every  court-house,  tavern,  and  post-office.  The  frequency 
with  which  these  losses  must  occur,  however,  on  large  plan- 
tations, is  most  strongly  evidenced  by  the  following  paragraph 
from  the  domestic-news  columns  of  the  Fayetteville  Observer. 
A  man  who  would  pay  these  prices  must  anticipate  frequent 
occasion  to  use  his  purchase. 

"  Mr.  J.  L.  Bryan,  of  Moore  county,  sold  at  public  auction,  on  the  20th 
instant,  a  pack  of  ten  hounds,  trained  for  hunting  runaways,  for  the  sum  of 
$1,540.  The  highest  price  paid  for  any  one  dog  was  8301 ;  lowest  price, 
$75 ;  average  for  the  ten.  $  154.  The  terms  of  sale  were  six  months' 
credit,  with  approved  security,  and  interest  from  date." 


VIRGINIA. — NORTH   CAROLINA.  159 

The  newspapers  of  the  South-western  States  frequently 
contain  advertisements  similar  to  the  following,  which  is 
taken  from  the  West  Tennessee  Democrat : — • 


B 


LOOD-HOUNDS.— I  have  TWO  of  the  FINEST  DOGS  for  CATCH- 
ING NEGROES  iu  the  Southwest.  They  can  take  the  trail 
TWELVE  HOURS  after  the  NEGRO  HAS  PASSED,  and  catch  him 
with  ease.  I  live  just  four  miles  southwest  of  Boliver,  on  the  road  lead- 
ing from  Boliver  to  Whitesville.  I  am  ready  at  all  times  to  catch  run- 
away negroes. — March  2,  1853. 

DAVDD  TURNER. 

The  largest  and  best  "  hotel "  in  Norfolk  had  been  closed, 
shortly  before  I  was  there,  from  want  of  sufficient  patronage 
to  sustain  it,  and  I  was  obliged  to  go  to  another  house, 
which,  though  quite  pretending,  was  shamefully  kept.  The 
landlord  paid  scarcely"  the  smallest  attention  to  the  wants  of 
his  guests,  turned  his  back  when  inquiries  were  made  of  him, 
and  replied  insolently  to  complaints  and  requests.  His 
slaves  were  far  his  superiors  in  manners  and  morals ;  but, 
not  being  one  quarter  in  number  what  were  needed,  and 
consequently  not  being  able  to  obey  one  quarter  of  the  orders 
that  were  given  them,  their  only  study  was  to  disregard,  as 
far  as  they  would  be  allowed  to,  all  requisitions  upon  their 
time  and  labour.  The  smallest  service  could  only  be  ob- 
tained by  bullying  or  bribing.  Every  clean  towel  that  I  got 
during  my  stay  was  a  matter  of  special  negotiation. 

I  was  first  put  in  a  very  small  room,  in  a  corner  of  the 
house,  next  under  the  roof.  The  weather  being  stormy,  and 
tfye  roof  leaky,  water  was  frequently  dripping  from  the 
ceiling  upon  the  bed  and  driving  in  at  the  window,  so  as  to 
stand  in  pools  upon  the  floor.  There  was  no  fire-place  in 
the  room  ;  the  ladies'  parlour  was  usually  crowded  by  ladies 
and  their  friends,  among  whom  I  had  no  acquaintance,  and, 
as  it  was  freezing  cold,  I  was  obliged  to  spend  most  of  my 
time  in  the  stinking  bar-room,  where  the  landlord,  all  the 


160  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

time,  sat  with  his  boon  companions,  smoking  and  chewing 
and  talking  obscenely. 

This  crew  of  old  reprobates  frequently  exercised  their 
indignation  upon  Mrs.  Stowe,  and  other  "  Infidel  aboli- 
tionists ;"  and,  on  Sunday,  having  all  attended  church,  after- 
wards mingled  with  their  ordinary  ribaldry  laudations  of  the 
"  evangelical "  character  of  the  sermons  they  had  heard. 

On  the  night  I  arrived,  I  was  told  that  I  would  be  pro- 
vided, the  next  morning,  with  a  room  in  which  I  could  have 
a  fire,  and  a  similar  promise  was  given  me  every  twelve 
hours,  for  five  days,  before  I  obtained  it ;  then,  at  last,  I 
had  to  share  it  with  two  strangers. 

When  I  left,  the  same  petty  sponging  operation  was 
practised  upon  me  as  at  Petersburg.  The  breakfast,  for 
which  half  a  dollar  had  been  pftid,  was  not  ready  until  an 
hour  after  I  had  been  called ;  and,  when  ready,  consisted  of 
cold  salt  fish ;  dried  slices  of  bread  and  tainted  butter ;  coffee, 
evidently  made  the  day  before  and  half  re- warmed  ;  no  milk, 
the  milkman  not  arriving  so  early  in  the  morning,  the  ser- 
vant said ;  and  no  sooner  was  I  seated  than  the  choice  was 
presented  to  me,  by  the  agitated  book-keeper,  of  going  with- 
out such  as  this,  or  of  losing  the  train,  and  so  being  obliged 
to  stay  in  the  house  twenty-four  hours  longer. 

Of  course  I  dispensed  with  the  breakfast,  and  hurried  off 
with  the  porter,  who  was  to  take  my  baggage  on  a  wheel- 
barrow to  the  station.  The  station  was  across  the  harbour, 
in  Portsmouth.  Notwithstanding  all  the  haste  I  could  com- 
municate to  him,  we  reached  the  ferry-landing  just  as  the 
boat  left,  too  late  by  three  seconds.  I  looked  at  my  watch ; 
it  lacked  but  twenty  minutes  of  the  time  at  which  the  land- 
lord and  the  book-keeper  and  the  breakfast-table  waiter  and 
the  railroad  company's  advertisements  had  informed  me  that 
the  train  left.  "Nebber  mine,  massa,"  said  the  porter, 


NORTH   CAROLINA.  161 

"  dey  won't  go  widout  'ou — Baltimore  boat  haant  ariv  yet ; 
dey  doan  go  till  dat  come  in,  sueh." 

Somewhat  relieved  by  this  assurance,  and  by  the  arrival  of 
others  at  the  landing,  who  evidently  expected  to  reach  the 
train,  I  went  into  the  market  and  got  a  breakfast  from  the 
cake  and  fruit  stalls  of  the  negro- women. 

In  twenty  minutes  the  ferry-boat  returned,  and  after  wait- 
ing some  time  at  the  landing,  put  out  again  ;  but  when  mid- 
way across  the  harbour,  the  wheels  ceased  to  revolve,  and  for 
fifteen  minutes  we  drifted  with  the  tide.  The  fireman  had 
been  asleep,  the  fires  had  got  low,  and  the  steam  given  out. 
I  observed  that  the  crew,  including  the  master  or  pilot,  and 
the  engineer,  were  all  negroes. 

We  reached  the  railroad  station  about  half  an  hour  after 
the  time  at  which  the  train  should  have  left.  There  were 
several  persons,  prepared  for  travelling,  waiting  about  it,  but 
there  was  no  sign  of  a  departing  train,  and  the  ticket-office 
was  not  open.  I  paid  the  porter,  sent  him  back,  and  was 
added  to  the  number  of  the  waiters. 

The  delay  was  for  the  Baltimore  boat,  which  arrived  in  an 
hour  after  the  time  the  train  was  advertised,  unconditionally, 
to  start,  and  the  first  forward  movement  was  more  than  an 
hour  and  a  half  behind  time.  A  brakeman  told  me  this 
delay  was  not  very  unusual,  and  that  an  hour's  waiting 
might  be  commonly  calculated  upon  with  safety. 

The  distance  from  Portsmouth  to  Welden,  N.C.,  eighty 
miles,  was  run  in  three  hours  and  twenty  minutes — twenty- 
five  miles  an  hour.  The  road,  which  was  -formerly  a  very 
poor  and  unprofitable  one,  was  bought  up  a  few  years  ago, 
mainly,  I  believe,  by  Boston  capital,  and  reconstructed  in  a 
substantial  manner.  The  grades  are  light,  and  there  are  few 
curves.  Fare,  2|  cents  a  mile. 

At  a  way-station  a  trader  had  ready  a  company  of  negroop, 

VOL.  I.  M 


162  COTTON   AND    SLAVEEY. 

intended  to  be  shipped  South  ;  hut  the  "  servants'  car  "  being 
quite  lull  already,  they  were  obliged  to  be  left  for  another 
train.  As  we  departed  from  the  station,  I  stood  upon  the 
platform  of  the  rear  car  with  two  other  men.  One  said  to 
the  other : — 

"  That's  a  good  lot  of  niggers." 

"  Damn'd  good ;  I  only  wish  they  belonged  to  me." 

I  entered  the  car,  and  took  a  seat,  and  presently  they  fol- 
lowed, and  sat  near  me.  Continuing  their  conversation  thus 
commenced,  they  spoke  of  their  bad  luck  in  life.  One 
appeared  to  have  been  a  bar-keeper ;  the  other  an  overseer. 
One  said  the  highest  wages  he  had  ever  been  paid  were  two 
hundred  dollars  a  year,  and  that  year  he  hadn't  laid  up  a 
cent.  Soon  after,  the  other,  speaking  with  much  energy  and 
bitterness,  said : — 

"  I  wish  to  God,  old  Yirginny  was  free  of  all  the  niggers." 

"  It  would  be  a  good  thing  if  she  was." 

"  Yes,  sir ;  and,  I  tell  you,  it  would  be  a  damn'd  good 
thing  for  us  poor  fellows." 

"  I  reckon  it  would,  myself." 

When  we  stopped  at  Weldon,  a  man  was  shouting  from  a 
stage-coach,  "  Passengers  for  Gaston  !  Hurry  up  !  Stage 
is  waiting  !"  As  he  repeated  this  the  third  time,  I  threw  up 
to  him  my  two  valises,  and  proceeded  to  climb  to  the  box,  to 
take  my  seat. 

"  You  are  in  a  mighty  hurry,  aint  ye  ?" 

"  Didn't  you  say  the  stage  was  waiting  ?" 

"  If  ye'r  goin'  ter  get  any  dinner  to-day,  better  get  it  her 3 ; 
won't  have  much  other  chance.  Be  right  smart  about  it,  toe." 

"  Then  you  are  not  going  yet  ?" 

"  You  can  get  yer  dinner,  if  ye  want  to." 

"  You'll  call  me,  will  you,  when  you  are  ready  to  go  ?" 


NORTH   CAROLINA.  163 

"  I  shan't  go  without  ye,  ye  needn't  be  afeard — go  'long 
in,  and  get  yer  dinner  ;  this  is  the  place,  if  any  war  ; — don't 
want  to  go  without  yer  dinner,  do  ye  ?" 

Before  arriving  at  Weldoii,  a  handbill,  distributed  by  the 
proprietors  of  this  inn,  had  been  placed  in  my  hands,  from 
which  I  make  the  following  extracts  : — 

"  We  pledge  our  word  of  honour,  as  gentlemen,  that  if  the  fare  at  our 
table  be  inferior  to  that  on  the  table  of  our  enterprising  competitor,  we 
will  not  receive  a  cent  from  the  traveller,  but  relinquish  our  claims  to 
pay,  as  a  merited  forfeit,  for  what  we  would  regard  as  a  wanton  imposition 
upon  the  rights  and  claims  of  the  unsuspecting  traveller. 

"  We  have  too  much  respect  for  the  Ladies  of  our  House,  to  make  even 
a  remote  allusion  to  their  domestic  duties  in  a  public  circular.  It  will  not 
however,  be  regarded  indelicate  in  us  to  say,  that  the  duties  performed  by 
them  have  been,  and  are  satisfactory  to  us,  and,  as  far  as  we  know,  to  the 
public.  And  we  will  only  add,  in  this  connection,  that  we  take  much 
pleasure  in  superintending  both  our  "  Cook-House  "  and  Table  in  person, 
and  in  administering  in  person  to  the  wants  of  our  guests. 

"  We  have  made  considerable  improvements  in  our  House  of  late,  and 
those  who  wish  to  remain  over  at  Weldon,  will  find,  with  us,  airy  rooms 
clean  beds,  brisk  fires,  and  attentive  and  orderly  servants,  with  abundance 
of  FRESH  OYSTERS  during  the  season,  and  every  necessary  and 
luxury  that  money  can  procure. 

"  It  is  not  our  wish  to  deceive  strangers  nor  others ;  and  if,  on  visiting 
our  House,  they  do  not  find  things  as  here  represented,  they  can  publish 
us  to  the  world  as  impostors,  and  the  ignominy  will  be  ours." 

Going  into  the  house,  I  found  most  of  the  passengers  by 
the  train  at  dinner,  and  the  few  negro  boys  and  girls  in  too 
much  of  a  hurry  to  pay  attention  to  any  one  in  particular. 
The  only  palatable  viand  within  my  reach  was  some  cold 
sweet  potatoes ;  of  these  I  made  a  slight  repast,  paid  the 
landlord,  who  stood  like  a  sentry  in  the  doorway,  half  a  dollar, 
and  in  fifteen  minutes,  by  my  watch,  from  the  time  I  had 
entered,  went  out,  anxious  to  make  sure  of  niy  seat  on  the 
box,  for  the  coach  was  so  small  that  but  one  passenger  could 
be  conveniently  carried  outside.  The  coach  was  gone. 

"  0,  yes,  sir,"  said  the  landlord,  hardly  disguising  his 

M  2 


164  COTTON    AOT>    SLAVERY. 

satisfaction ;  "  gone — yes,  sir,  some  time  ago ;  you  was  in 
to  dinner,  was  you,  sir — pity !  you'll  have  to  stay  over  till 
to-morrow  now,  won't  you  ?" 

"  I  suppose  so,"  said  I,  hardly  willing  to  give  up  my  in- 
tention to  sleep  in  Ealeigh  that  night,  even  to  secure  a  clean 
bed  and  fresh  oysters.  "  "Which  road  does  the  stage  go  upon  ?" 

"  Along  the  county  road." 

"  "Which  is  that — this  way  through  the  woods  ?" 

"  Yes,  sir. — Carried  off  your  baggage  did  he  ? — Pity  ! 
Suppose  he  forgot  you.  Pity  !" 

"  Thank  you — yes,  I  suppose  he  did.  Is  it  a  pretty  good 
road  ?" 

"  No,  sir,  'taint  first-rate — good  many  pretty  bad  slews. 
You  might  go  round  by  the  Petersburg  Eailroad,  to-morrow. 
You'd  overtake  your  baggage  at.  Graston." 

"  Thank  you.  It  was  not  a  very  fast  team,  I  know.  I'm 
going  to  take  a  little  run;  and,  if  I  shouldn't  come  back 
before  night,  you  needn't  keep  a  bed  for  me.  Good  day,  sir." 

In  about  half  an  hour  I  overhauled  the  coach :  as  I  came 
up,  the  driver  hailed  me — 

"•Hallo!  that  you?" 

"  Why  did  not  you  wait  for  me,  or  call  me  when  you 
wanted  to  go,  as  you  promised  ?" 

"  Beckoned  yer  was  inside — didn't  look  in,  coz  I  asked  if 
'twas  all  right,  and  somebody,  this  'ere  gentleman  here  " — 
[who  had  got  my  seat]—"  '  Yes,'  says  he,  '  all  right ;'  so  I 
reckoned  'twas,  and  driv  along.  Mustn't  blame  me.  Ortn't 
to  be  so  long  swallerin'  yer  dinner — mind,  next  time  !" 

The  road  was  as  bad  as  anything  under  the  name  of  a 
road  cart  be  conceived  to  be.  Wherever  the  adjoining 
swamps,  fallen  trees,  stumps,  and  plantation  fences  would 
admit  of  it,  the  coach  was  driven,  with  a  great  deal  of  dex- 
terity, out  of  the  road.  When  the  wheels  sunk  in  the  mud, 


NORTH    CAliOLINA.  1C  5 

below  the  hubs,  we  were  sometimes  requested  to  get  out  and 
walk.  An  upset  seemed  every  moment  inevitable.  At  length, 
it  came ;  and  the  driver,  climbing  on  to  the  upper  side, 
opened  the  door,  and  asked — 

"  Got  mixed  up  some  in  here  then,  didn't  ye  ?  Ladies, 
hurt  any  ?  Well,  come,  get  out  here ;  don't  want  to  stay 
here  all  night  I  reckon,  do  ye  ? — Aint  nothing  broke,  as  I 
see.  We'll  right  her  right  up.  Nary  durn'd  rail  within  a 
thousan'  mile,  I  don't  s'pose ;  better  be  lookin'  roun' ;  got 
to  get  soinethin'  for  a  pry." 

In  four  hours  after  I  left  the  hotel  at  Weldon,  the  coach 
reached  the  bank  of  the  Roanoke,  a  distance  of  fourteen  miles, 
and  stopped.  "  Here  we  are,"  said  the  driver,  opening  the  door. 

"  Where  are  we — not  in  Gaston  ?" 

"  Burned  nigh  it.  That  ere's  Gaston,  over  thar  ;  and  you 
jast  holler,  and  they'll  come  over  arter  you  in  the  boat." 

Gaston  was  a  mile  above  us,  and  on  the  other  side  of  the 
river.  Nearly  opposite  was  a  house,  and  a  scow  drawn  up  on 
the  beach ;  the  distance  across  the  river  was,  perhaps,  a 
quarter  of  a  mile.  When  the  driver  had  got  the  luggage  off, 
he  gathered  his  reins,  and  said — 

"  Seems  to  me  them  ther  gol-durned  lazy  niggers  aint  a 
goin'  to  come  over  arter  you  now ;  if  they  won't  you'd  better 
go  up  to  the  railroad  bridge,  some  of  ye,  and  get  a  boat,  or 
else  go  down  here  to  Free  Town  ;  some  of  them  cussed  free 
niggers  '11  be  glad  of  the  job,  I  no  doubt." 

"  But,  confound  it,  driver  !  you  are  not^  going  to  leave  us 
here,  are  you  ?  we  paid  to  be  carried  to  Gaston." 

"  Can't  help  it ;  you  are  clus  to  Gaston,  any  how,  and  if 
any  man  thinks  he's  goin'  to  hev  me  drive  him  up  to  the 
bridge  to-night,  he's  damnably  mistaken,  he  is,  and  I  aint  a 
goin'  to  do  it  not  for  no  man,  I  ain't." 

And  away  he  drove,  leaving  us,  all  strangers,  in  a  strange 


166  COTTON   AND    SLAYEBY. 

country,  just  at  the  edge  of  night,  far  from  any  house,  to 
"holler." 

The  only  way  to  stop  him  was  to  shoot  him ;  and,  as  we 
were  all  good  citizens,  and  travelled  with  faith  in  the  pro- 
tection of  the  law,  and  not  like  knights-errant,  armed  for 
adventure,  we  could  not  do  that. 

Good  citizens  ?  No,  we  were  not ;  for  we  have  all,  to  this 
day,  neglected  to  prosecute  the  fellow,  or  his  employers.  It 
would,  to  be  sure,  have  cost  us  ten  times  any  damages  we 
should  have  been  awarded ;  but,  if  we  had  been  really  good 
citizens,  we  should  have  been  as  willing  to  sacrifice  the 
necessary  loss,  as  knights-errant  of  old  were  to  risk  life  to 
fight  bloody  giants.  And,  until  many  of  us  can  have  the 
nobleness  to  give  ourselves  the  trouble  and  expense  of  killing 
off  these  impudent  highwaymen  of  our  time,  at  law,  we  have 
all  got  to  suffer  in  their  traps  and  stratagems. 

We  soon  saw  the  "  gol-durned  lazy  niggers "  come  to 
their  scow,  and  after  a  scrutiny  of  our  numbers,  and  a  con- 
sultation among  themselves,  which  evidently  resulted  in  the 
conclusion  that  the  job  wouldn't  pay,  go  back. 

When  it  began  to  grow  dark,  leaving  me  as  a  baggage- 
guard,  the  rest  of  the  coach's  company  walked  up  the  bank 
of  the  river,  and  crossed  by  a  railroad  bridge  to  Gaston. 
One  of  them  afterwards  returned  with  a  gang  of  negroes, 
whom  he  had  hired,  and  a  large  freight-boat,  into  which, 
across  the  snags  which  lined  the  shore,  we  passed  all  the 
baggage.  Among  the  rest,  there  were  some  very  large  and 
heavy  chests,  belonging  to  two  pretty  women,  who  were 
moving,  with  their  effects ;  and,  although  they  remained  in 
our  company  all  the  next  day,  they  not  only  neglected  to 
pay  their  share  of  the  boat  and  negro-hire,  but  forgot  to 
thank  us,  or  even  gratefully  to  smile  upon  us,  for  our  long 
toil  in  the  darkness  for  them. 


NORTH   CAROLINA.  167 

Working  up  the  swollen  stream  of  the  Koanoke,  with 
setting-poles  and  oars,  we  at  length  reached  Gaston.  When 
I  bought  my  tickets  at  the  station  in  Portsmouth,  I  said, 
"  I  will  take  tickets  to  any  place  this  side  of  Raleigh  at 
which  I  can  arrive  before  night.  I  wish  to  avoid  travelling 
after  dark."  "  You  can  go  straight  through  to  Ealeigh, 
before  dark,"  said  the  clerk.  "  You  are  sure  of  that  ?" 
"  Yes,  sir."  On  reaching  Gaston,  I  inquired  at  what  time 
the  train  for  Ealeigh  had  passed :  '*'  At  three  o'clock." 

According  to  the  advertisement,  it  should  have  passed  at 
two  o'clock;  and,  under  the  most  favourable  circumstances, 
it  could  not  have  been  possible  for  us,  leaving  Portsmouth  at 
the  time  we  did,  to  reach  Gaston  before  four  o'clock,  or 
Ealeigh  in  less  than  twenty-eight  hours  after  the  time  pro- 
mised. The  next  day,  I  asked  one  of  the  railroad  men  how 
often  the  connection  occurred,  which  is  advertised  in  the 
Northern  papers,  as  if  it  were  a  certain  thing  to  take  place  at 
Gaston.  "  Not  very  often,  sir ;  it  hain't  been  once,  in  the 
last  two  weeks."  Whenever  the  connection  is  not  made,  all 
passengers  whom  these  railroad  freebooters  have  drawn  into 
their  ambush,  are  obliged  to  remain  over  a  day,  at  Gaston ; 
for,  as  is  to  be  supposed,  with  such  management,  the  business 
of  the  road  will  support  but  one  train  a  day. 

The  route  by  sea,  from  Baltimore  to  Portsmouth,  and 
thence  by  these  lines,  is  advertised  as  the  surest,  cheapest, 
and  .most  expeditious  route  to  Ealeigh.  Among  my  stage 
companions,  were  some  who  lived  beyond  Ealeigh.  This 
was  Friday.  They  would  now  not  reach  Ealeigh  till  Satur- 
day night,  and  such  as  could  not  conscientiously  travel  on 
Sunday,  would  be  detained  from  home  two  days  longer  than 
if  they  had  come  the  land  route.  One  of  them  lived  some 
eighty  miles  beyond  Ealeigh,  and  intended  to  proceed  by  a 
coach,  which  was  to  leave  Saturday  morning.  He  would 


168  COTTON    AN1)    SLAVEKY. 

probably  be  now  detained  till  the  following  Wednesday,  as 
the  coach  left  Raleigh  but  twice  a  week. 

The  country  from  Portsmouth  to  Gaston,  eighty  miles, 
partly  in  Virginia,  and  partly  in  North  Carolina,  is  almost 
all  pine  forest,  or  cypress  swamp ;  and  on  the  little  land  that 
is  cultivated,  I  saw  no  indication  of  any  other  crop  than 
maize.  The  soil  is  light  and  poor.  Between  Weldon  and 
Gaston  there  are  heavier  soils,  and  we  passed  several  cotton 
fields,  and  planters'  mansions.  On  the  low,  flat  lands  border- 
ing the  banks  of  the  Roanoke,  the  soil  is  of  the  character  of 
that  of  James  River,  fine,  fertile,  mellow  loam  ;  and  the  maize 
crop  seemed  to  have  been  heavy. 

Gaston  is  a  village  of  some  twenty  houses,  shops,  and 
cabins,  besides  the  railroad  :  storehouses,  the  hotel,  and  a 
nondescript  building,  which  may  be  either  a  fancy  barn,  or  a 
little  church,  getting  high.  From  the  manner  in  which 
passengers  are  forced,  by  the  management  of  the  trains 
arriving  here,  to  patronize  it,  the  hotel,  I  presume,  belongs 
to  the  railroad  companies.  It  is  ill-kept,  but  affords  some 
entertainment  from  its  travesty  of  certain  metropolitan 
vulgarities.  I  was  chummed  with  a  Southern  gentleman,  in 
a  very  small  room.  Finding  the  sheets  on  both  our  beds 
had  been  soiled  by  previous  occupants,  he  made  a  row  about 
it  with  the  servants,  and,  after  a  long  delay,  had  them 
changed ;  then  observing  that  it  was  probably  the  mistress's 
fault,  and  not  the  servants',  he  paid  the  negro,  whom  he  had 
been  berating,  for  his  trouble. 

Among  our  inside  passengers,  in  the  stage-coach,  was  a 
free  coloured  woman ;  she  was  treated  in  no  way  differently 
from  the  white  ladies.  My  room-mate  said  this  was  entirely 
customary  at  the  South,  and  no  Southerner  would  ever  think 
of  objecting  to  it.  Notwithstanding  which,  I  have  known 
young  Southerners  to  get  very  angry  because  negroes  were 


NORTH   CAROLINA.  169 

not  excluded  from  the  public  conveyances  in  which  they  had 
taken  passage  themselves,  at  the  North ;  and  I  have  always 
supposed  that  when  they  were  so  excluded,  it  was  from  fear 
of  offending  Southern  travellers,  more  than  anything  else.* 

Sitting  near  some  men  lounging  on  the  river-bank,  I  took 
notes  of  the  following  interesting  information,  delivered  in  a 
high-keyed,  blatant  drawl : — 

"  The  best  medicine  there  is,  is  this  here  Idee  of  Potasun. 

*  A  South  Carolina  View  of  the  Subject.  {Correspondence  of  Willis's  Musical 
World,  New  York.)— "  Charlestown,  Dec.  31. — I  take  advantage  of  the  season 
of  compliments  (being  a  subscriber  to  your  invaluable  sheet),  to  tender  you  this 
scrap,  as  a  reply  to  a  piece  in  your  paper  of  the  17th  ult.,  with  the  caption  :  '  In- 
tolerance of  coloured  persons  in  New  York.'  The  piece  stated  that,  up-town  families 
(in  New  York)  objected  to  hiring  coloured  persons  as  servants,  in  consequence  of 
'conductors  and  drivers  refusing  to  let  them  ride  in  city  cars  and  omnibuses,"  and 
coloured  boys,  at  most,  may  ride  on  the  top.  And  after  dwelling  on  this,  you  say, 
'Shame  on  such  intolerant  and  outrageous  prejudice  and  persecution  of  the  coloured 
race  at  the  North !'  You  then  say,  '  Even  the  slaveholder  would  cry  shame  upon 
us.'  You  never  made  a  truer  assertion  in  your  life.  For  you  first  stated  that  they 
were  even  rejected  when  they  had  white  children  in  their  arms.  My  dear  friend,  if 
this  was  the  only  persecution  that  your  coloured  people  were  compelled  to  yield  sub- 
mission to,  then  I  might  say  nothing.  Are  they  allowed  (if  they  pay)  to  sit  at 
the  tables  of  your  fashionable  hotels  ?  Are  they  allowed  a  seat  in  the  '  dress 
circle  '  at  your  operas  ?  Are  they  not  subject  to  all  kinds  of  ill-treatment  from 
the  whites  ?  Are  they  not  pointed  at,  and  hooted  at,  by  the  whites  (natives  of  the 
city),  when  dressed  up  a  little  e>ptra,  and  if  they  oflera  reply,  are  immediately  over- 
powered by  gangs  of  whites  ?  You  appear  to  be  a  reasonable  writer,  which  is  the 
reason  I  put  these  queries,  knowing  they  can  only  be  answered  in  the  affirmative. 

"  We  at  the  South  feel  proud  to  allow  them  to  occupy  seats  in  our  omnibuses 
(public  conveyances),  while  they,  with  the  affection  of  mothers,  embrace  our  white 
children,  and  take  them  to  ride.  And  in  our  most  fashionable  carriages,  you  will 
see  the  slave  sitting  alongside  of  their  owner.  You  will  see  the  slave  clothed  m 
the  most  comfortable  of  wearing  apparel.  And  more.  Touch  that  slave,  if  you 
dare,  and  you  will  see  the  owner's  attachment.  And  thus,  in  a  very  few  words, 
you  have  the  contrast  between  the  situation  of  the  coloured  people  at  the  North 
and  South.  Do  teach  the  detest&ble  Abolitionist  of  the  North  his  duty,  and  open 
his  eyes  to  the  misery  and  starvation  that  surround  his  own  home.  Teach 
him  to  love  his  brethren  of  the  South,  and  teach  him  to  let  Slavery  alone  in 
the  South,  while  starvation  and  destitution  surround  him  at  the  North ;  and 
oblige, 

"  BARON." 


170  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

It's  made  out  of  two  minerals  ;  one  on  'em  they  gets  in  the 
mountains  of  Scotland — that's  the  Idee ;  the  other's  steel- 
filings,  and  they  mixes  them  eschemically  until  they  works 
altogether  into  a  solid  stuff  like  saltpetre.  Now,  I  tell  you 
that's  the  stuff  for  medicine.  It's  the  best  thing  a  man  can 
ever  put  into  his  self.  It  searches  out  every  narve  in  his 
body." 

The  train  by  which  we  were  finally  able  to  leave  Graston 
arrived  the  next  day  an  hour  and  a  half  after  its  advertised 
time.  The  road  was  excellent  and  the  speed  good,  a  heavy  U 
rail  having  lately  been  substituted  for  a  flat  one.  A  new 
equipment  of  the  road,  throughout,  is  nearly  complete.  The 
cars  of  this  train  were  very  old,  dirty,  and  with  dilapidated 
and  moth-eaten  furniture.  They  furnished  me  with  a  com- 
fort, however,  which  I  have  never  been  able  to  try  before 
— a  full-length  lounge,  on  which,  with  my  overcoat  for  a 
pillow,  the  car  being  warmed,  and  unintentionally  well 
ventilated,  I  slept  soundly  after  dark.  Why  night-trains  are 
not  furnished  with  sleeping  apartments,  has  long  been  a  wonder 
to  me.  We  have  now  smoking-rooms  and  water-closets  on 
our  trains ;  why  not  sleeping,  -dressing,  and  refreshment 
rooms  ?  With  these  additions,  and  good  ventilation,  we 
could  go  from  New  York  to  New  Orleans,  by  rail,  without 
stopping :  as  it  is,  a  man  of  ordinary  constitution  cannot  go 
a  quarter  that  distance  without  suffering  serious  indispo- 
sition. Surely  such  improvements  could  not  fail  to  be  re- 
munerative, particularly  on  lines  competing  with  water  com- 
munication. 

The  country  passed  through,  so  far  as  I  observed,  was 
almost  entirely  covered  with  wood ;  and  such  of  it  as  was 
cultivated,  very  unproductive. 

The  city  of  Baleigh  (old  Sir  Walter),  the  capital  of  North 
Carolina,  is  a  pleasing  town — the  streets  wide,  and  lined  with 


N®RTH   CAROLINA.  171 

trees,  and  many  white  wooden  mansions,  all  having  little 
court-yards  of  flowers  and  shruhbery  around  them.  The 
State-house  is,  in  every  way,  a  noble  building,  constructed  of 
brownish-gray  granite,  in  Grecian  style.  It  stands  on  an 
elevated  position,  near  the  centre  of  the  city,  in  a  square 
field,  which  is  shaded  by  some  tall  old  oaks,  and  could 
easily  be  made  into  an  appropriate  and  beautiful  little  park ; 
but  which,  with  singular  negligence,  or  more  singular  eco- 
nomy (while  8500,000  has  been  spent  upon  the  simple 
edifice),  remains  in  a  rude  state  of  undressed  nature,  and  is 
used  as  a  hog-pasture.  A  trifle  of  the  expense,  employed 
with  doubtful  advantage,  to  give  a  smooth  exterior  face  to 
the  blocks  of  stone,  if  laid  out  in  grading,  smoothing,  and 
dressing  its  ground  base,  would  have  added  indescribably  to 
the  beautv  of  the  edifice.  An  architect  should  always  begin 

*•  V 

his  work  upon  the  ground. 

It  is  hard  to  admire  what  is  common ;  and  it  is,  perhaps, 
asking  too  much  of  the  citizens  of  Kaleigh,  that  they  should 
plant  for  ornament,  or  even  cause  to  be  retained  about  such 
institutions  as  their  Lunatic  Asylum,  the  beautiful  evergreens 
that  crowd  about  the  town ;  but  can  any  man  walk  from  the 
Capitol  oaks  to  the  pine  grove,  a  little  beyond  the  Deaf  and 
Dumb  Institution,  and  say  that  he  would  not  far  rather  have 
the  latter  than  the  former  to  curtain  in  his  habitation  ?  If  he 
can, in  summer,  let  him  try  it  again,  as  I  did,  in  a  soft 
winter's  day,  when  the  evergreens  fill  the  air  with  a  balsamic 
odour,  and  the  green  light  conies  quivering  through  them,  and 
the  foot  falls  silently  upon  the  elastic  carpet  they  have  spread, 
deluding  one  with  all  the  feelings  of  spring. 

The  country,  for  miles  about  Ealeigh,  is  nearly  all  pine 
forest,  unfertile,  and  so  little  cultivated,  that  it  is  a  mystery- 
how  a  town  of  2,500  inhabitants  can  obtain  sufficient  supplies 
from  it  to  exist. 


172  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

The  public-house  at  which  I  stayed  was,  however,  not  only 
well  supplied,  but  was  excellently  well  kept,  for  a  house  of 
its  class,  in  all  other  respects.  The  landlord  superintended 
his  business  personally,  and  was  always  attentive  and  obliging 
to  his  guests ;  and  the  servants  were  sufficiently  numerous, 
intelligent,  and  well  instructed.  Though  I  'had  no  acquaint- 
ances in  Raleigh,  I  remained,  finding  myself  in  such  good 
quarters,  several  days.  I  think  the  house  was  called  "  The 
Burlinghame." 

After  this  stay,  rendered  also  partly  necessary  for  the 
repair  of  damages  to  my  clothing  and  baggage  on  the 
Weldon  stage,  I  engaged  a  seat  one  day  on  the  coach, 
advertised  to  leave  at  nine  o'clock  for  Fayetteville.  At  half- 
past  nine,  tired  of  waiting  for  its  departure,  I  told  the 
agent,  as  it  was  not  ready  to  start,  I  would  walk  on  a  bit, 
and  let  them  pick  me  up.  I  found  a  rough  road — for  several 
miles  a  clayey  surface  and  much  water — and  was  obliged  to 
pick  my  way  a  good  deal  through  the  woods  on  either  side. 
Stopping  frequently,  when  I  came  to  cultivated  land,  to 
examine  the  soil  and  the  appearance  of  the  stubble  of  the 
maize — the  only  crop — in  three  different  fields  I  made  five 
measurements  at  random,  of  fifty  feet  each,  and  found  the 
stalks  had  stood,  on  an  average,  five  feet  by  two  feet  one  inch 
apart,  and  that,  generally,  they  were  not  over  an  inch  in 
diameter  at  the  butt.  In  one  old-field,  in  process  of  clearing 
for  new  cultivation,  I  examined  a  most  absurd  little  plough, 
with  a  share  not  more  than  six  inches  in  depth,  and  eight  in 
length  on  the  sole,  fastened  by  a  socket  to  a  stake,  to  which 
was  fitted  a  short  beam  and  stilts.  It  was  drawn  by  one 
mule,  and  its  work  among  the  stumps  could  only  be  called 
scratching.  A  farmer  told  me  that  he  considered  twenty-five 
bushels  of  corn  a  large  crop,  and  that  he  generally  got  only  as 
much  as  fifteen.  He  said  that  no  money  was  to  be  got  by 


NORTH   CAROLINA.  173 

raising  corn,  and  very  few  fanners  here  "  made  "  any  more 
than  they  needed  for  their  own  force.  It  cost  too  much  to  get 
it  to  market,  and  yet  sometimes  they  had  to  buy  corn  at  a 
dollar  a  bushel,  and  waggon  it  home  from  Raleigh,  or  further, 
enough  not  having  been  raised  in  the  country  for  home  con- 
sumption. Cotton  was  the  only  crop  they  got  any  money 
for.  I,  nevertheless,  did  not  see  a  single  cotton-field  during 
the  day.  He  said  that  the  largest  crop  of  corn  that  he  knew 
of,  reckoned  to  be  fifty  bushels  to  the  acre,  had  been  raised  on 
some  reclaimed  swamp,  while  it  was  still  so  wet  that  horses 
would  mire  on  it  all  the  summer,  and  most  of  it  had  been 
tended  entirely  with  hoes. 

After  walking  a  few  miles,  the  country  became  more  flat, 
and  was  covered  with  old  forests  of  yellow  pine,  and,  at  nine 
miles  south  of  Ealeigh,  there  were  occasionally  young  long- 
leaved  pines :  exceedingly  beautiful  they  are  while  young, 
the  colour  being  more  agreeable  than  that  of  any  other  pine, 
and  the  leaves,  or  "  straw,"  as  its  foliage  is  called  here,  long, 
graceful,  and  lustrous.  As  the  tree  gets  older,  it  becomes  of 
a  stiffer  character  and  darker  colour. 

I  do  not  think  I  passed,  in  ten  miles,  more  than  half  a 
dozen  homesteads,  and  of  these  but  one  was  at  all  above  the 
character  of  a  hut  or  cabin.  The  same  remarkable  appear- 
ance of  listlessness,  which  I  had  noticed  so  often  in  Virginia, 
characterized  the  men  who  stood  leaning  against  the  logs  of 
the  hovels.  They  blinked  at  me  as  I  passed,  as  if  unable  to 
withdraw  their  hands  from  their  pockets  to  shade  their  eyes. 
Every  dwelling  sent  its  pack  of  curs  to  meet  me,  and  as  often 
as  they  opened  cry,  a  woman,  with  a  pipe  in  her  mouth,  would 
come  to  the  door  and  call  them  off;  the  men  and  boys  blink- 
ing on  in  rest  and  silence. 

A  little  after  one  o'clock  I  reached  "  Banks's,"  a  plantation 
where  the  stage  horses  are  changed,  eleven  miles  from 


174  COTTON   AND   SLA.VEBY 

Kaleigh.  Here  I  waited  nearly  an  hour,  till  the  coach 
arrived,  when,  fresh  horses  having  been  put  on,  I  took  an 
outside  seat. 

"  There  ain't  a  man  in  North  Car'lina  could  drive  them 
horses  up  the  hills  without  a  whip,"  said  the  driver.  "  You 
ought  to  get  yesef  a  whip,  massa,"  said  one  of  the  negroes. 
"  Durnation  !  think  I'm  going  to  buy  whips  !  the  best  whip 
in  North  Car'lina  wouldn't  last  a  week  on  this  road."  "  Dat's 
a  fac — dat  ar  is  a  fac  ;  but  look  yeah,  massa,  ye  let  me  hab 
yer  stick,  and  I'll  make  a  whip  for  ye ;  ye  nebber  can  make 
Bawley  go  widout  it,  no  how."  The  stick  was  a  sapling  rod, 
of  which  two  or  three  lay  on  the  coach  top ;  the  negro 
fastened  a  long  leather  thong  to  it.  "  Dah !  ye  can  fetch 
old  Bawley  wi'  dat."  "  Bawley  "  had  been  tackled  in  as  the 
leader  of  the  "  spike  team  ;"  but,  upon  attempting  to  start,  it 
was  found  that  he  couldn't  be  driven  in  that  way  at  all,  and 
the  driver  took  him  out  and  put  him  to  the  pole,  within  reach 
of  the  butt  of  his  stick,  and  another  horse  was  put  on  the  lead. 

One  negro  now  took  the  leader  by  the  head,  and  applied  a 
stick  lustily  to  his  flanks ;  another,  at  the  near  wheeler,  did 
the  same ;  and  the  driver  'belaboured  Bawley  from  the  box. 
But  as  soon  as  they  began  to  move  forward,  and  the  negro  let 
go  the  leader's  head,  he  would  face  about.  After  this  had  been 
repeated  many  times,  a  new  plan  of  operations  was  arranged 
that  proved  successful.  Leaving  the  two  wheelers  to  the 
care  of  the  negroes,  the  driver  was  enabled  to  give  all  his 
attention  to  the  leader.  When  the  wheelers  started,  of  course 
he  was  struck  by  the  pole,  upon  which^he  would  turn  tail  and 
start  for  the  stable.  The  negroes  kept  the  wheelers  from 
following  him,  and  the  driver  with  his  stick,  and  another 
negro  with  the  bough  of  a  tree,  thrashed  his  face ;  he  would 
then  turn  again,  and,  being  hit  by  the  pole,  start  ahead.  So, 
after  ten  minutes  of  fearful  outcry,  we  got  off. 


NORTH   CAKOLINA.  175 

, "  How  far  is  it  to  Mrs.  Barclay's  ?"  a  passenger  had  asked. 
"  Thirteen  miles,"  answered  a  negro ;  "  but  I  tell  'ou,  massa, 
dais  .1  heap  to  be  said  and  talk  'bout  'fore  'ou  see  Missy  Bar- 
clay's wid  dem  bosses."  There  was,  indeed. 

"Bawley — you!  Bawley — Bawley  !  wha''bout? — ah!" 

"  Rock  !  wha'  you  doin'  ? — (durned  sick  horse — an't  fit  to 
be  in  a  stage,  nohow)." 

"Bawley!  you!  g'up!" 

"  Oh  !  you  dod-rotted  Bob — Sob  ! — (he  don't  draw  a  pound, 
and  he  an't  a  gwine  to) — you,  Bob  ! — (well,  he  can't  stop,  can 
he,  as  long  as  the  wheelers  keep  movin'  ?)  Bob  !  I'll  break 
yer  legs,  you  don't  git  out  the  way." 

"  Oh,  Bawley  ! — (no  business  to  put  such  a  lame  boss  into 
the  stage.)  Blamnation,  Bawley !  Now,  if  you  stop,  I'll 
kill  you." 

"  Wha'  Tx>ut,  Rock  ?  Dod  burn  that  Rock !  You  stop  if 
you  dare !  (I'll  be  durned  to  Hux  if  that  'ere  hoss  arn't 
all  used  up.)" 

"  You,  Bob !  get  out  de  way,  or  I'll  be ." 

•'  Oh  !  d'rot  yer  soul,  Bawley — y're  gwine  to  stop  !  G'up  ! 
G'up  !  Rock !  You  all-fired  ole  villain  !  Wha'  'bout  ?  (If 
they  jus'  git  to  stoppin',  all  hell  couldn't  git  the  mails  through 
to-night.)" 

After  about  three  miles  of  this,  they  did  stop.  The  driver 
threw  the  reins  down  in  despair.  After  looking  at  the  wheels, 
and  seeing  that  we  were  on  a  good  piece  of  road,  nothing 
unusual  to  hinder  progress,  he  put  his  hands  in  his  pockets, 
and  sat  quietly  a  minute,  and  then  began,  in  a  business-like 
manner,  to  swear,  no  longer  confining  himself  to  the  peculiar 
idiomatic  profanity  of  the  country,  but  using  real,  outright, 
old-fashioned,  uncompromising  English  oaths,  as  loud  as  he 
could  yell.  Then  he  stopped,  and  after  another  pause,  began 
to  talk  quietly  to  the  horses : 


176  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

<c  You,  Bob,  you  won't  draw  ?  Didn't  you  git  enough  last 
night  ?  (I  jabbed  my  knife  into  his  face  twice  when  we  got 
into  that  fix  last  night ;"  and  the  wounds  on  the  horse's  head 
showed  that  he  spoke  the  truth.) .  "I  swar,  Bob,  if  I  have  to 
come  down  thar,  I'll  cut  your  throat." 

He  stopped  again,  and  then  sat  down  on  the  foot-board, 
and  began  to  beat  the  wheelers  as  hard  and  as  rapidly  as 
possible  with  the  butt  of  his  stick.  They  started,  and,  striking 
Bob  with  the  pole,  he  jumped  and  turned  round ;  but  a  happy 
stroke  on  "  the  raw"  in  his  face  brought  him  to  his  place ; 
and  the  stick  being  applied  just  in  time  to  the  wheelers,  he 
caught  the  pole  and  jumped  ahead.  We  were  off  again. 

"  Turned  over  in  that  'ere  mire  hole  last  night,"  said  the 
driver.  "  Couldn't  do  any  thin'  with  'em — passengers  camped 
out — thar's  were  they  had  their  fire,  under  that  tree;  didn't 
get  to  Kaleigh  till  nine  o'clock  this  mornin'.  That's  the 
reason  I  wern't  along  after  you  any  sooner-*-hadn't  got  my 
breakfast ;  that's  the  reason  the  hosses  don't  draw  no  better 
to-day,  too,  I  s'pose.  You,  Kock! — Baivley  ! — BOB  !" 

After  two  miles  more,  the  horses  stopped  once  more.  The 
driver  now  quietly  took  the  leader  off  (he  had  never  drawn  at 
all),  and  tied  him  behind  the  coach.  He  then  began  beating 
the  near  wheeler,  a  passenger  did  the  same  to  Bawley — both 
standing  on  the  ground — while  I  threw  off  my  overcoat  and 
walked  on.  For  a  time  I  could  occasionally  hear  the  cry, 
"  Bawl — Eock  !"  and  knew  that  the  coach  was  moving  again ; 
gradually  I  outwalked  the  sound. 

The  road  was  a  mere  opening  through  a  forest  of  the  long- 
leafed  pine;  the  trees  from  eight  to  eighteen  inches  in 
diameter,  with  straight  trunks  bare  for  nearly  thirty  feet,  and 
their  evergreen  foliage  forming  a  dense  dark  canopy  at  that 
height,  the  surface  of  the  ground  undulating  with  long  swells, 
occasionally  low  and  wet.  In  the  latter  case,  there  was 


NORTH   CAROLINA.  177 

generally  a  mingling  of  deciduous  trees  and  a  watercourse 
crossing  the  road,  with  a  thicket  of  shruhs.  The  soil  sandy, 
with  occasionally  veins  of  clay ;  the  latter  more  commonly  in 
the  low  ground,  or  in  the  descent  to  it.  Very  little  grass, 
herbage,  or  underwood ;  and  the  ground  covered,  except  in 
the  road,  with  the  fallen  pine-leaves.  Every  tree,  on  one, 
two,  or  three  sides,  was  scarified  for  turpentine.  In  ten  miles, 
I  passed  half  a  dozen  cabins,  one  or  two  small  clearings,  in 
which  corn  had  been  planted,  and  one  turpentine  distillery, 
with  a  dozen  sheds  and  cabins  clustered  about  it. 

In  about  an  hour  after  I  left  the  coach,  the  driver,  mounted 
on  Bob,  overtook  me :  he  was  going  on  to  get  fresh 
horses. 

After  dark,  I  had  some  difficulty  in  keeping  the  road,  there 
being  frequent  forks,  and  my  only  guide  the  telegraph  wire. 
I  had  to  cross  three  or  four  brooks,  which  were  now  high,  and 
had  sometimes  floated  off  the  logs  which,  in  this  country,  are 
commonly  placed,  for  the  teamsters,  along  the  side  of  the 
road,  where  it  runs  through  water.  I  could  generally  jump 
from  stump  to  stump  ;  and,  by  wading  a  little  at  the  edges  in 
my  staunch  Scotch  shooting-boots,  get  across  dry-shod. 
Where,  however,  the  water  was  too  deep,  I  always  found,  by 
going  up  or  down  stream,  a  short  way,  a  fallen  trunk  across 
it,  by  which  I  got  over. 

I  met  the  driver  returning  with  two  fresh  horses ;  and  at 
length,  before  eight  o'clock,  reached  a  long  one-story  cabin, 
which  I  found  to  be  Mrs.  Barclay's.  It  was  right  cheerful 
and  comforting  to  open  the  door,  from  the  dark,  damp,  chilly 
night,  into  a  large  room,  filled  with  blazing  light  from  a  great 
fire  of  turpentine  pine,  by  which  two  stalwart  men  were  read- 
ing newspapers,  a  door  opening  into  a  background  of  supper- 
table  and  kitchen,  and  a  nice,  stout,  kindly-looking,  Quaker- 
like  old  lady  coming  forward  to  welcome  me. 

VOL.  I.  N. 


178  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

As  soon  as  I  was  warm,  I  was  taken  out  to  supper :  seven 
preparations  of  swine's  flesh,  two  of  maize,  wheat  cakes,  broiled 
quails,  cold  roast  turkey,  coffee,  and  tea. 

My  bed-room  was  a  house  by  itself,  the  only  connection  be- 
tween it  and  the  main  building  being  a  platform,  or  gallery, 
in  front.  A  great  fire  burned  here  also  in  a  broad  fire-place ; 
a  stuffed  easy-chair  had  been  placed  before  it,  and  a  tub  of 
hot  water,  which  I  had  not  thought  to  ask  for,  to  bathe  my 
weary  feet. 

And  this  was  a  piny-woods  stage-house  !  But  genius  will 
find  its  development,  no  matter  where  its  lot  is  cast ;  and 
there  is  as  much  genius  for  inn-keeping  as  for  poetry.  Mrs. 
Barclay  is  a  Burns  in  her  way,  and  with  even  more  modesty ; 
for,  after  twenty-four  hours  of  the  best  entertainment  that 
could  be  asked  for,  I  was  only  charged  one  dollar.  I  paid 
two  dollars  for  my  stage-coach  privileges — to  wit,  riding  five 
miles  and  walking  twenty-one. 

At  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  three  gentlemen  that 
I  had  left  ten  miles  back  at  four  o'clock  the  previous  day, 
were  dragged,  shivering  in  the  stage-coach,  to  the  door. 
They  had  had  no  meal  since  breakfasting  at  Kaleigh ;  and 
one  of  them  was  now  so  tired  that  he  could  not  eat,  but  dropt 
prone  on  the  floor  before  the  fire  and  slept  the  half-hour  they 
were  changing  horses,  or  rather  resting  horses,  for  no  relay 
was  left. 

I  afterwards  met  one  of  the  company  in  Fayetteville. 
Their  night's  adventure  after  I  left  them,  and  the  continued 
cruelty  to  the  horses,  were  most  distressing.  The  driver 
once  got  off  the  box,  and  struck  the  poor,  miserable,  sick 
"  Eock  "  with  a  rail,  and  actually  knocked  him  down  in  the 
road.  At  another  time,  after  having  got  fresh  horses,  when 
they,  too,  were  "stalled,"  he  took  them  out  of  the  harness 
and  turned  them  loose,  and,  refusing  to  give  any  answer  to 


NORTH    CAROLINA.  179 

the  inquiries  of  the  passengers,  looked  about  for  a  dry  place, 
and  laid  down  and  went  to  sleep  on  the  ground.  One  of  the 
passengers  had  then  walked  on  to  Mrs.  Barclay's,  and 
obtained  a  pair  of  mules,  with  which  the  coach  was  finally 
brought  to  the  house.  The  remainder  kindled  a  fire,  and  tried 
to  rest  themselves  by  it.  They  were  sixteen  hours  in  coming 
thirty  miles,  suffering  much  from  cold,  and  without  food. 

The  next  day  I  spent  in  visiting  turpentine  and  rosin 
works,  piny-wood  farms,  etc.,  under  the  obliging  guidance  of 
Mrs.  Barclay's  son-in-law,  and  in  the  evening  again  took  the 
coach.  The  horses  were  better  than  on  the  previous  stage  : 
upon  my  remarking  this  to  the  driver,  he  said  that  the 
reason  was,  that  they  took  care  of  this  team  themselves  (the 
drivers)  ;  on  the  last  stage  the  horses  were  left  to  negroes, 
who  would  not  feed  them  regularly,  nor  take  any  decent  care 
of  them.  "  Why,  what  do  you  think  ?"  said  he ;  "  when  I  got 
to  Banks's,  this  morning,  I  found  my  team  hadn't  been  fed 
all  day ;  they  hadn't  been  rubbed  nor  cleaned,  nary  durned 
thing  done  to  'em,  and  thar  the  cussed  darkey  was,  fast  asleep. 
Beckon  I  didn't  gin  him  a  wakin'  up !" 

"  You  don't  mean  the  horses  that  you  drove  up  ?" 
"  Yes,  I  do,  and  they  hadn't  a  cussed  thing  to  eat  till  they 
got  back  to  Barclay's  !" 

"  How  was  it  possible  for  you  to  drive  them  back  ?" 
"  Why,  I  don't  suppose  I  could  ha'  done  it  if  I'd  had  any 
passengers  :  (you  Suze  /)  shall  lose  a  mail  again  to-night,  if 
this  mare  don't  travel  better,  (durn  ye,  yer  ugly,  I  believe). 
She's  a  good  mare — a  heap  of  go  in  her,  but  it  takes  right 
smart  of  work  to  get  it  out.  Suze  /" 

So  we  toiled  on,  with  incessant  shouting,  and  many  strange 
piny-wood  oaths,  and  horrid  belabouring  of  the  poor  horses' 
backs,  with  the  butt-end  of  a  hickory  whip-stalk,  till  I  really 
thought  their  spinal-columns  must  break.  The  country,  the 

N    2     " 


180  COTTON  AND   SLAVERY. 

same  undulating  pine  forest,  the  track  tortuous  among  the  trees, 
which  frequently  stood  so  close  that  it  required  some  care  to 
work  between  them.  Often  we  made  detours  from  the  ori- 
ginal road,  to  avoid  a  fallen  tree,  or  a  mire-hole,  and  all  the 
time  we  were  bouncing  over  protruding  roots  and  small 
stumps.  There  was  but  little  mud,  the  soil  being  sand,  but 
now  and  then  a  deep  slough.  In  one  of  these  we  found  a 
waggon,  heavily  laden,  stuck  fast,  and  six  mules  and  five 
negroes  tugging  at  it.  With  our  help  it  was  got  out  of  the 
way,  and  we  passed' on.  Soon  afterwards  we  met  the  return 
coach,  apparently  in  a  similar  predicament ;  but  one  of  the 
passengers,  whom  I  questioned,  replied :  "  No,  not  stalled, 
exactly,  but  somehow  the  horses  won't  draw.  "We  have  been 
more  than  three  hours  coming  about  four  miles." 

"  How  is  it  you  have  so  many  balky  horses  ?"  I  asked  the 
driver. 

"  The  old  man  buys  'em  up  cheap,  'cause  nobody  else  can 
do  anything  with  'em." 

"  I  should  not  think  you  could  do  much  with  them,  either — 
except  to  kill  them." 

"Well,  that's  what  the  old  man  says  he  buys  'em  for.    He 

V  V 

was  blowing  me  up  for  losing  the  mail  t'other  night ;  I  told 
him,  says  I,  '  You  have  to  a'most  kill  them  horses,  'fore  you 
can  make  'em  draw  a  bit,'  says  I.  '  Ball  'em,  damn  'em,  kill 
em,  then ;  that's  what  I  buy  'em  for,'  says  he.  '  I  buy  'em  a 
purpose  to  kill ;  that's  all  they  are  good  for,  ain't  it  ?'  says  he. 
'  Don't  s'pose  they're  going  to  last  for  ever,  do  ye  ?'  says  he." 
We  stopped  once,  nearly  half  an  hour,  for  some  unex- 
plained reason,  before  a  house  on  the  road.  The  door  of  the 
house  was  open,  an  enormous  fire  was  burning  in  it,  and,  at  the 
suggestion  of  the  driver,  I  went  in  to  warm  myself.  It  was 
a  large  log-cabin,  of  two  rooms,  with  beds  in  each  room,  and 
with  an  apartment  overhead,  to  which  access  was  had  by  a 


NORTH   CAROLINA.  181 

ladder.  Among  the  inmates  were  two  women ;  one  of  them 
sat  in  the  chimney-corner  smoking  a  pipe,  and  rocking  a 
cradle ;  the  other  sat  directly  before  the  fire,  and  full  ten  feet 
distant.  She  was  apparently  young,  but  her  face  was  as  dry 
and  impassive  as  a  dead  man's.  She  was  doing  nothing,  and 
said  but  little ;  but,  once  in  about  a  minute,  would  suddenly 
throw  up  her  chin,  and  spit  with  perfect  precision  into  the 
hottest  embers  of  the  fire.  The  furniture  of  the  house  was 
more  scanty  and  rude  than  I  ever  saw  before  in  any  house, 
with  women  living  in  it,  in  the  United  States.  Yet  these 
people  were  not  so  poor  but  that*they  had  a  negro  woman 
cutting  and  bringing  wood  for  their  fire. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  this  is  a  long-settled  country, 
Laving  been  occupied  by  Anglo-Saxons  as  early  as  any  part 
of  the  Free  States,  and  that  it  is  the  main  road  between  the 
capital  of  North  Carolina  and  its  chief  sea-port. 

There  is  nothing  that  is  more  closely  connected,  both  as 
cause  and  effect,  with  the  prosperity  and% wealth  of  a  country, 
than  its  means  and  modes  of  travelling,  and  of  transportation 
of  the  necessities  and  luxuries  of  life.  I  saw  this  day,  as  I 
shall  hereafter  describe,  three  thousand  barrels  of  resin,  worth 
a  dollar  and  a  half  a  barrel  in  New  York,  thrown  away,  a 
mere  heap  of  useless  offal,  because  it  would  cost  more  to 
transport  it  than  it  would  be  worth.  There  was  a  single  wag- 
gon, with  a  ton  or  two  of  sugar,  and  flour,  and  tea,  and  axes, 
and  cotton  cloths,  unable  to  move,  with  six  mules,  and  five 
negroes  at  work  upon  it.  Kaleigh  is  a  large  distributing 
post-office,  getting  a  very  heavy  mail  from  the  North ;  here 
was  all  that  is  sent  by  one  of  its  main  radii,  travelling  one 
day  two  miles  an  hour,  the  next  four  miles,  and  on  each  occa- 
sion failing  to  connect  with  the  conveyances  which  we  pay 
to  scatter  farther  the  intelligence  and  wealth  transmitted 
by  it.  Barbarous  is  too  mild  a  term  to  apply  to  the 


182  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

manner  in  which  even  this  was  done.  The  improvidence, 
if  not  the  cruelty,  no  sensible  barbarian  could  have  been 
guilty  of. 

Afterwards,  merely  to  satisfy  my  mind  (for  there  is  a 
satisfaction  in  seeing  even  scoundrelism  consistently  carried 
out,  if  attempted  at  all  in  a  business),  I  called  on  the  agent 
of  the  line  at  Fayetteville,  stated  the  case,  and  asked  if  any 
part  of  what  I  had  paid  for  my  passage  would  be  returned 
me,  on  account  of  the  disappointment  and  delay  which  I  had 
suffered  from  the  inability  of  the  proprietor  to  carry  out  his 
contract  with  me.  The  *  impudence  of  the  suggestion,  of 
course,  only  created  amusement;  and  I  was  smilingly  in- 
formed that  the  business  was  not  so  "lucky"  that  the  pro- 
prietor could  afford  to  pay  back  money  that  he  had  once  got 
into  his  hands.  What  I  had  seen  was  regarded  by  no  one, 
apparently,  as  at  all  unusual. 

At  one  of  the  stations  for  changing  horses,  an  old  coloured 

man  was  taken  into  the  coach.     I  ascertained  from  him  that 

• 

he  was  a  blacksmith,  and  had  been  up  the  line  to  shoe  the 
horses  at  the  different  stables.  Probably  he  belonged  (poor 
fellow  ! )  to  the  man  who  bought  horses  to  be  killed  in  doing 
his  work.  After  answering  my  inquiries,  he  lay  down 
in  the  bottom  of  the  coach,  and  slept  until  we  reached 
Fayetteville.  The  next  time  we  changed,  the  new  driver 
inquired  of  the  old  one  what  passengers  he  had.  "  Only 
one  gentleman,  and  old  man  Ned." 

"  Oh  !  is  old  man  along — that's  good — if  we  should  turn 
over,  or  break  down,  or  anything,  reckon  he  could  nigh 
about  pray  us  up — he's  right  smart  at  prayin'." 

"  Well,  I  tell  you,  now,  ole  man  can  trot  out  as  smart  a 
prayer,  when  he's  a  mind  to  go  in  for't,  as  any  man  I  ever 
heerd,  durned  if  he  can't." 

The  last  ten  miles  we  came  over  rapidly,  smoothly,  and 


NORTH   CAROLINA.  183 

quietly,  by  a  plank-road,  reaching  Fayetteville  about  twelve, 
of  a  fine,  clear,  frosty  night. 

Entering  the  office  or  bar-room  of  the  stage-house,  at 
which  I  had  been  advised  to  stay  while  in  Fayetteville,  I 
found  it  occupied  by  a  group  of  old  soakers,  among  whom 
was  one  of  perhaps  sixteen  years  of  age.  This  lad,  without 
removing  the  cigar  which  he  had  in  his  mouth,  went  to  the 
bar,  whither  I  followed  him,  and,  without  saying  a  word, 
placed  an  empty  tumbler  before  me. 

"I  don't  wish  anything  to  drink,"  said  I;  "  I  am  cold 
and  tired,  and  I  would  like  to  go  to  a  room.  I  intend  to 
stay  here  some  days,  and  I  should  be  glad  if  you  could  give 
me  a  private  room  with  a  fire  in  it." 

"  Boom  with  a  fire  in  it  ?"  he  inquired,  as  he  handed  me 
the  registry-book. 

"  Yes  ;  and  I  will  thank  you  to  have  it  made  immediately, 
and  let  my  baggage  be  taken  up." 

He  closed  the  book,  after  I  had  written  my  name,  and 
returned  to  his  seat  at  the  stove,  leaving  me  standing,  and 
immediately  engaged  in  conversation,  without  paying  any 
attention  to  my  request.  I  waited  some  time,  during  which 
a  negro  came  into  the  room,  and  went  out  again.  I  then 
repeated  my  request,  necessarily  aloud,  and  in  such  a  way  as 
to  be  understood,  not  only  by  the  boy,  but  by  all  the 
company.  Immediately  all  conversation  ceased,  and  every 
head  was  turned  to  look  at  me.  The  lad  paused  a  moment, 
spit  upon  the  stove,  and  then — 

"  Want  a  room  to  yourself?" 

"  Yes,  if  convenient." 

No  answer  and  no  movement,  all  the  company  staring  at 
me  as  if  at  a  detected  burglar. 

"  Perhaps  you  can't  accommodate  me  ?" 

"  Want  a  fire  made  in  your  room  ?" 


184  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

"  Why,  yes,  if  convenient ;  but  I  should  like  to  go  to  my 
room,  at  any  rate ;  I  am  very  tired." 

After  puffing  and  spitting  for  a  moment,  he  rose  and  pulled 
a  bell ;  then  took  his  seat  again.  In  about  five  minutes  a 
negro  came  in,  and  during  all  this  time  there  was  silence. 

"  What'll  you  drink,  Baker  ?"  said  the  lad,  rising  and  going  to 
the  bar,  and  taking  no  notice  of  the  negro's  entrance.  A  boozy 
man  followed  him,  and  made  some  reply ;  the  lad  turned  out  two 
glasses  of  spirits,  added  water  to  one,  and  drank  it  in  a  gulp.* 

"  Can  this  boy  show  me  to  my  room  ?"  I  asked. 

"  Anybody  in  number  eleven,  Peter  ?" 

"  Not  as  I  knows  on,  sar." 

"  Take  this  man's  baggage  up  there." 

I  followed  the  negro  up  to  number  eleven,  which  was  a 
.arge  back  room  in  the  upper  story,  with  four  beds  in  it. 

"  Peter,"  said  I,  "  I  want  a  fire  made  here." 

"  Want  a  fire,  sar  ?" 

"  Yes,  I  want  you  to  make  a  fire." 

"  Want  a  fire,  master,  this  time  o'  night  ?" 

"  Why,  yes ;  I  want  a  fire.  Where  are  you  going  with 
the  lamp  ?" 

"  Want  a  lamp,  massa  ?" 

"  Want  a  lamp  ?     Certainly,  I  do." 

After  about  ten  minutes,  I  heard  a  man  splitting  wood  in 
the  yard,  and,  in  ten  more,  Peter  brought  in  three  sticks  of 
green  wood,  and  some  chips ;  then,  the  little  bed-lamp  having 
burned  out,  he  went  into  an  adjoining  room,  where  I  heard 
him  talking  to  some  one,  evidently  awakened  by  his  entrance 

*  The  mother  of  this  young  man  remonstrated  with  a  friend  of  mine,  for 
permitting  his  son  to  join  a  company  of  civil  engineers,  engaged,  at  the  time,  in 
surveying  a  route  for  a  road — he  would  be  subject  to  such  fatiguing  labour,  and 
so  much  exposure  to  the  elements  ;  and  congratulated  tferself  that  her  own  child 
was  engaged  in  such  an  easy  and  gentleman-like  employment  as  that  of  hotel-clerk 
and  bar  keeper. 


NORTH    CAROLINA.  185 

to  get  a  match  ;  that  failing,  he  went  for  another.  By  one 
o'clock,  my  fire  was  made. 

"  Peter,"  said  I,  "  are  you  going  to  wait  on  me,  while  I 
stay  here  ?" 

"  Yes,  sar  ;  I  'tends  to  dis  room." 

"  Very  well ;  take  this,  and,  when  I  leave,  I'll  give  you 
another,  if  you  take  good  care  of  me.  Now,  I  want  you  to 
get  me  some  water." 

"  I'll  get  you  some  water  in  de  morning,  sar." 

"I  want  some  to-night — some  water  and  some  towels; 
don't  you  think  you  can  get  them  for  me  ?" 

"  I  reckon  so,  massa,  if  you  wants  'em.  Want  'em  'fore 
you  go  to  bed  ?" 

"  Yes  ;  and  get  another  lamp." 

"  Want  a  lamp  ?" 

"  Yes,  of  course." 

"  Won't  the  fire  do  you  ?" 

"  No  ;  bring  a  lamp.  That  one  won't  burn  without  fill- 
ing ;  you  need  not  try  it." 

The  water  and  the  lamp  came,  after  a  long  time. 

In  the  morning,  early,  I  was  awakened  by  a  knock  at  the 
door. 

"-Who's  there  ?" 

"  Me,  massa  ;  I  wants  your  boots  to  black." 

I  got  up,  opened  the  door,  and  returned  to  bed.  Falling 
asleep,  I  was  soon  again  awakened  by  Peter  throwing  down 
an  armful  of  wood  upon  the  floor.  Slept  again,  and  was 
again  awakened,  by  Peter's  throwing  up  the  window,  to 
empty  out  the  contents  of  the  wash  bowl,  etc.  The  room 
was  filled  with  smoke  of  the  fat  light  wood :  Peter  had  al- 
ready made  a  fire  for  me  to  dress  by ;  but  I  again  fell  asleep, 
and,  when  I  next  awoke,  the  breakfast  bell  was  ringing. 
Peter  had  gone  off,  and  left  the  window  and  door  open,  and 


186  COTTON   AOT>   SLAVEBY. 

the  fire  had  burned  out.  My  boots  had  been  taken  away, 
and  the  bell- wire  was  broken.  I  dressed,  and  walking  to  the 
bar-room,  asked  the  bar-keeper — a  complaisant,  full-grown 
man — for  my  boots.  He  did  not  know  where  they  were,  and 
rang  the  bell  for  Peter.  Peter  came,  was  reprimanded  for 
his  forgetfulness,  and  departed.  Ten  minutes  elapsed,  and 
he  did  not  return.  I  again  requested  that  he  should  be 
called ;  and  this  time  he  brought  my  boots.  He  had  had  to 
stop  to  black  them  ;  having,  he  said,  been  too  busy  to  do  it 
before  breakfast. 

The  following  evening,  as  it  grew  too  cold  to  write  in  my 
room,  I  went  down,  and  found  Peter,  and  told  him  I  wanted 
a  fire  again,  and  that  he  might  get  me  a  couple  of  candles. 
When  he  came  up,  he  brought  one  of  the  little  bed-lamps, 
with  a  capacity  of  oil  for  fifteen  minutes'  use.  I  sent  him 
down  again  to  the  office,  with  a  request  to  the  proprietor  that 
I  might  be  furnished  with  candles.  He  returned,  and  re- 
ported that  there  were  no  candles  in  the  house. 

"  Then,  get  me  a  larger  lamp." 

"  Aint  no  larger  lamps,  nuther,  sar ; — none  to  spare." 

"  Then  go  out,  and  see  if  you  can't  buy  me  some  candles, 
somewhere." 

"Aint  no  stores  open,  Sunday,  massa,  and  I  don't  know 
where  I  can  buy  'em." 

"  Then  go  down,  and  tell  the  bar-keeper,  with  my  compli- 
ments, that  I  wish  to  write  in  my  room,  and  I  would  be 
obliged  to  him  if  he  would  send  me  a  light,  of  some  sort ; 
something  that  will  last  longer,  and  give  more  light,  than 
these  little  lamps." 

"  He  won't  give  you  none,  massa — not  if  you  hab  a  fire. 
C.in't  you  see  by  da  light  of  da  fire  ?  When  a  gentlemen 
hab  a  fire  in  his  room,  dey  don't  count  he  wants  no  more 
licht  'n  dat." 


NORTH   CAROLINA.  187 

"Well,  make  the  fire,  and  I'll  go  down  and  see  about 
it." 

As  I  reached  the  foot  of  the  stairs,  the  bell  rang,  and  I 
went  in  to  tea.  The  tea  table  was  moderately  well  lighted 
with  candles.  I  waited  till  the  company  had  generally  left 
it,  and  then  said  to  one  of  the  waiters — 

"  Here  are  two  dimes  :  I  want  you  to  bring  me,  as  soon  as 
you  can,  two  of  these  candles  to  number  eleven ;  do  you 
understand  ?" 

"  Yes,  sar ;  I'll  fotch  'em,  sar." 

And  he  did. 

About  eight  o'clock,  there  was  an  alarm  of  fire.  Going 
into  the  street,  I  was  surprised  to  observe  how  leisurely  the 
people  were  walking  toward  the  house  in  flames,  standing 
very  prominently,  as  it  did,  upon  a  hill,  at  one  end  of  the 
town.  As  I  passed  a  church,  the  congregation  was  coming 
out ;  but  very  few  quickened  their  step  above  a  strolling  pace. 
Arrived  near  the  house,  I  was  still  more  astonished  to  see 
how  few,  of  the  crowd  assembled,  were  occupied  in  restraining 
the  progress  of  the  fire,  or  in  saving  the  furniture,  and  at  the 
prevailing  stupidity,  confusion,  and  want  of  system  and  con- 
cert of  action,  in  the  labour  for  this  purpose.  A  large  ma- 
jority of  those  engaged  were  negroes.  As  I  returned  toward 
the  hotel,  a  gentleman,  walking,  with  a  lady,  before  me,  on 
the  -side  walk,  accosted  a  negro  whom  he  met : 

"  What !  Moses  !  That  you  ?  Why  were  you  not  here 
sooner  ?" 

"  Why,  Mass  Eichard,  I  was  singing,  an'  I  didn'  her  de 

bells  and 1  see  twant  in  our  ward,  sar,  and  so  I  didn'  see 

as  dar  was  zactly  'casion  for  me  to  hurry  myself  to  def.  Ef 
eed  a  been  in  our  ward,  Mass  Kichard,  I'd  a  rallied,  you 
knows  I  would.  Mose  would  ha  rallied,  ef  eed  a  been  in  our 
ward — ha  !  ha  !  ha  ! — you  knows  it,  Mass  Eichard  !" 


188  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

And  he  passed  on,  laughing  comically,  without  further  re- 
proof. 

Fayetteville. — The  negroes  employed  in  the  turpentine  busi- 
ness, to  which  during  the  last  week  I  have  been  giving  some 
examination,  seem  to  me  to  be  unusually  intelligent  and  cheer- 
ful, decidedly  more  so  than  most  of  the  white  people  inhabiting 
the  turpentine  forest.     Among  the  latter  there  is  a  large 
number,  I  should  think  a  majority,  of  entirely  uneducated, 
poverty-stricken  vagabonds.     I  mean  by  vagabonds,  simply, 
people  without  habitual,  definite  occupation  'or  reliable  means 
of  livelihood.     They  are  poor,  having  almost  no  property  but 
their  own  bodies ;  and  the  use  of  these,  that  is,  their  labour, 
they  are  not  accustomed  to  hire  out  statedly  and  regularly, 
so  as  to  obtain  capital  by  wages,  but  only  occasionally  by  the 
day  or  job,  when  driven  to  it  by  necessity.     A  family  of  these 
people  will  commonly  hire,  or  "  squat  "  and  build,  a  little  log 
cabin,  so  made  that  it  is  only  a  shelter  from  rain,  the  sides  not 
being  chinked,  and  having  no  more  furniture  or  pretension  to 
comfort  than  is  commonly  provided  a  criminal  in  the  cell  of  a 
prison.     They  will  cultivate  a  little  corn,  and  possibly  a  few 
roods  of  potatoes,  cow-peas,  and  coleworts.     They  will  own  a 
few  swine,  that  find  their  living  in  the  forest ;  and  pretty  cer- 
tainly, also,  a  rifle  and  dogs  ;  and  the  men,  ostensibly,  occupy 
most  of  their  time  in  hunting.     I  am,  mainly,  repeating  the 
statements  of  one  of  the  turpentine  distillers,  but  it  was  con- 
firmed by  others,  and  by  my  own  observation,  so  far  as  it  went. 
A  gentleman  of  Fayetteville  told  me  that  he  had,  several 
times,  appraised,  under  oath,  the  whole  household  property  of 
families  of  this  class  at  less  than  $20.     If  they  have  need  of 
money  to  purchase  clothing,  etc.,  they  obtain  it  by  selling 
their  game  or  meal.     If  they  have  none  of  this  to  spare,  or  an 
insufficiency,  they  will  work  for  a  neighbouring  farmer  for  a 


NORTH    CAROLINA.  189 

few  days,  and  they  usually  get  for  their  labour  fifty  cents  a 
day,  finding  themselves.  The  farmers  and  distillers  say,  that 
that  they  do  not  like  to  employ  them,  because  they  cannot  be 
relied  upon  to  finish  what  they  undertake,  or  to  work  accord- 
ing to  directions  ;  and  because,  being  white  men,  they  cannot 
"  drive  "  them.  That  is  to  say,  their  labour  is  even  more 
inefficient  and  unmanageable  than  that  of  slaves. 

That  I  have  not  formed  an  exaggerated  estimate  of  the 
proportion  of  such  a  class,  will  appear  to  the  reader  more 
probable  from  the  testimony  of  a  pious  colporteur,  given 
before  a  public  meeting  in  Charleston,  in  February,  1855.  I 
quote  from  a  Charleston  paper's  report.  The  colporteur  had 

been  stationed  at county,  N.C.  : — "  The  larger  portion  of 

the  inhabitants  seemed  to  be  totally  given  up  to  a  species  of 
mental  hallucination,  which  carried  them  captive  at  its  will. 
They  nearly  all  believed  implicitly  in  witchcraft,  and  attri- 
buted everything  that  happened,  good  or  bad,  to  the  agency 
of  persons  whom  they  supposed  possessed  of  evil  spirits." 

f The  majority  of  what  I  have  termed  turpentine-farmers — . 

meaning  the  small  proprietors  of  the  long-leafed  pine  forest 
land — are  people  but  a  grade  superior,  in  character  or  condition, 
to  these  vagabonds.  They  have  habitations  more  like  houses 
— log-cabins,  commonly,  sometimes  chinked,  oftener  not — 
without  windows  of  glass,  but  with  a  few  pieces  of  substantial 
old-fashioned  heir-loom  furniture ;  a  vegetable  garden,  in 
which,  however,  you  will  find  no  vegetable  but  what  they 
call  "  collards"  (colewort)  for  "  greens  ;"  fewer  dogs,  more 
swine,  and  larger  clearings  for  maize,  but  no  better  crops  than 
the  poorer  class.  Their  property  is,  nevertheless,  often  of 
considerable  money  value,  consisting  mainly  of  negroes,  who, 
associating  intimately  with  their  masters,  are  of  superior  in- 
telligence to  the  slaves  of  the  wealthier  classes. 

Some  of  the  larger  proprietors,  who  are  also  often  cotton 


190  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

planters,  cultivating  the  richer  low  lands,  are  said  to  be  gentle- 
men of  good  estate — intelligent,  cultivated,  and  hospitable. 

North  Carolina  has  a  proverbial  reputation  for  the  igno- 
rance and  torpidity  of  her  people  ;  being,  in  this  respect,  at 
the  head  of  the  Slave  States.  I  do  not  find  the  reason  of  this 
in  any  innate  quality  of  the  popular  mind ;  but,  rather,  in  the 
circumstances  under  which  it  finds  its  development.  Owing 
to  the  general  poverty  of  the  soil  in  the  Eastern  part  of  the 
State,  and  to  the  almost  exclusive  employment  of  slave  labour 
on  the  soils  productive  of  cotton  ;  owing,  also,  to  the  difficulty 
and  expense  of  reaching  market  with  bulky  produce  from  the 
interior  and  western  districts,  population  and  wealth  is  more 
divided  than  in  the  other  Atlantic  States  ;  industry  is  almost 
entirely  rural,  and  there  is  but  little  communication  or  con- 
cert of  action  among  the  small  and  scattered  proprietors  of 
capital.  For  the  same  reason,  the  advantages  of  education 
are  more  difficult  to  be  enjoyed,  the  dictance  at  which  families 
reside  apart  preventing  children  from  coming  together  in 
such  numbers  as  to  give  remunerative  employment  to  a 
teacher.  The  teachers  are,  generally,  totally  unfitted  for  their 
business ;  young  men,  as  a  clergyman  informed  me,  them- 
selves not  only  imadvanced  beyond  the  lowest  knowledge  of 
the  elements  of  primary  school  learning,  but  often  coarse, 
vulgar,  and  profane  in  their  language  and  behaviour,  who 
take  up  teaching  as  a  temporary  business,  to  supply  the  de- 
mand of  a  neighbourhood  of  people  as  ignorant  and  unculti- 
vated as  themselves. 

The  native  white  population  of  North  Carolina  is        .      .  550,267 

The  whole  white  population  under  20  years,  is       ...  301,100 

Leaving  white  adults  over  20 249,161 

Of  these  there  are  natives  who  cannot  read  and  write       .  73,226* 

Being  more  than  one-fourth  of  the  native  white  adults. 

*  Official  Census  Report,  pp.  309,  299,  317. 


NORTH    CAROLINA.  191 

But  the  aspect  of  North  Carolina  with  regard  to  slavery, 
is,  in  some  respects,  less  lamentable  than  that  of  Virginia. 
Therj  is  not  only  less  bigotry  upon  the  subject,  and  more 
freedom  of  conversation,  but  I  saw  here,  in  the  institution, 
more  of  patriarchal  character  than  in  any  other  State.  The 
slave  more  frequently  appears  as  a  family  servant — a  member 
of  his  master's  family,  interested  with  him  in  his  fortune,  good 
or  bad.  This  is  a  result  of  the  less  concentration  of  wealth 
in  families  or  individuals,  occasioned  by  the  circumstances  I 
have  described.  Slavery  thus  loses  much  of  its  inhumanity. 
It  is  still  questionable,  however,  if,  as  the  subject  race  ap- 
proaches civilization,  the»dominant  race  is  not  proportionately 
detained  in  its  onward  progress.  One  is  forced  often  to  ques- 
tion, too,  in  viewing  slavery  in  this  aspect,  whether  humanity 
and  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  the  prosperity  of  the  master, 
and  the  happiness  and  improvement  of  the  subject,  are  not  in 
some  degree  incompatible. 

These  later  observations  are  made  after  having  twice  again 
passed  through  the  State,  once  in  a  leisurely  way  on  horse- 
back. In  some  of  the  Western  and  Northern  central  parts 
of  the  State,  there  is  much  more  enterprise,  thrift,  and  comfort 
than  in  the  Eastern  part,  where  I  had  my  first  impressions. 

I  left  Fayetteville  in  a  steamboat  (advertised  for  8  o'clock, 
left  at  8.45)  bound  down  Cape  Fear  Kiver  to  Wilmington.  A 
description  of  the  river,  with  incidents  of  the  passage,  will 
serve  to  show  the  character  of  most  of  the  navigable  streams 
of  the  cotton  States,  flowing  into  the  Atkntic  and  the  Gulf, 
and  of  the  manner  of  their  navigation. 

The  water  was  eighteen  feet  above  its  lowest  summer  stages ; 
the  banks  steep,  thirty  feet  high  from  the  present  water  sur- 
face— from  fifty  to  one.  hundred  feet  apart — and  covered  with 
krge  trees  and  luxuriant  vegetation ;  the  course  crooked ;  the 


192  COTTON   AND   SLAVEEY. 

current  very  rapid ;   the  trees  overhanging  the  banks,  and 
frequently  falling  into  the  channel — making  the  navigation 
hazardous.     The  river  is  subject  to  very  rapid  rising.     The, 
master  told  me  that  he  had  sometimes  left  his  boat  aground 
at  night,  and,  on  returning  in  the  morning,  found  it  floating 
in  twenty-five  feet  water,  over  the  same  spot.     The  difference 
between  the  extremes  of  low  stages  and  floods  is  as  much  as 
seventy  feet.     In  summer,  there  are  sometimes  but  eighteen 
inches  of  water  on  the  bars :    the  boat  I  was  in  drew  but 
fourteen   inches,  light.     She  was   a   stern-wheel   craft — the 
boiler  and  engine  (high  pressure)  being  placed  at  opposite 
ends,  to  balance  weights.     Her  butden  was  three  hundred 
barrels,  or  sixty  tons  measurement.     This  is  the  character  of 
most  of  the  boats  navigating  the  river — of  which  there  are 
now  twelve.     Larger  boats  are  almost  useless  in  summer, 
from  their  liability  to  ground ;  and  even  the  smaller  ones,  at 
low  stages  of  water,  carry  no  freight,  but  are  employed  to  tow 
up  "  flats  "  or  shallow  barges.     At  this  season  of  the  year, 
however,  the  steamboats  are  loaded  close  to  the  water's  edge. 
The  bulk  of  our  freight  was  turpentine ;  and  the  close  prox- 
imity of  this  to  the  furnaces  suggested  a  danger  fully  equal 
to  that  from  snags  or  grounding.     On  calling  the  attention  of  a 
fellow-passenger  to  it,  he  told  me  that  a  friend  of  his  was  once 
awakened  from  sleep,  while  lying  in  a  berth  on  one  of  these 
boats,  by  a  sudden,  confused  sound.     Thinking  the  boiler  had 
burst,  he  drew  the  bed-clothing  over  his  head,  and  laid  quiet, 
to  avoid  breathing  the  steam  ;  until,  feeling  the  boat  ground, 
he  ran  out,  and  discovered  that  she  was  on  fire  near  the  fur- 
nace.    Having  some  valuable  freight  near  by,  which  he  was 
desirous  to  save,  and  seeing  no  immediate  danger,  though  left 
alone  on  the  boat,  he  snatched  a  bucket,  and,  drawing  water 
from  alongside,  applied  it  with  such  skill  and  rapidity  as  soon 
to  quench  the  flames,  and  eventually  to  entirely  extinguish 


NORTH    CAROLINA.  193 

the  fire.  Upon  the  return  of  the  crew,  a  few  repairs  were 
made,  steam  was  got  up  again,  and  the  boat  proceeded  to  her 
destination  in  safety.  He  afterwards  ascertained  that  three 
hundred  kegs  of  gunpowder  were  stowed  beneath  the  deck 
that  had  been  on  fire  —  a  circumstance  which  sufficiently  ac- 
counted for  the  panic-flight  of  the  crew. 

Soon  after  leaving,  we  passed  the  Zephyr,  wooding  up  :  an 
hour  later,  our  own  boat  was  run  to  the  bank,  men  jumped 
from  her  fore  and  aft,  and  fastened  head  and  stern  lines  to  the 
trees,  and  we  also  commenced  wooding. 

The  trees  had  been  cut  away  so  as  to  leave  a  clear  space  to 
the  top  of  the  bank,  which  was  some  fifty  feet  from  the  boat, 
and  moderately  steep.  Wood,  cut,  split,  and  piled  in  ranks, 
stood  at  the  top  of  it,  and  a  shoot  of  plank,  two  feet  wide  and 
thirty  long,  conveyed  it  nearly  to  the  water.  The  crew 
rushed  to  the  wood-piles  —  master,  passengers,  and  all,  but 
the  engineer  and  chambermaid,  deserting  the  boat  —  and  the 
wood  was  first  passed  down,  as  many  as  could,  throwing  into 
the  shoot,  and  others  forming  a  line,  and  tossing  it,  from  one 
to  another,  down  the  bank.  From  the  water's  edge  it  was 
passed,  in  the  same  way,  to  its  place  on  board,  with  great 
rapidity  —  the  crew  exciting  themselves  with  yells.  They  were 
all  blacks,  but  one. 

On  a  tree,  near  the  top  of  the  bank,  a  little  box  was 
nailed,  on  which  a  piece  of  paper  was  tacked,  with  this  in- 
scription : 

« 


Jwc 


ff  tt     St 

'to- 
.fl 


VOL.  I. 


194  COTTON   AND    SL AVERT. 

and  the  master — just  before  the  wood  was  all  on  board — 
hastily  filled  a  blank  order  (torn  from  a  book,  like  a  check- 
book, leaving  a  memorandum  of  the  amount,  etc.)  on  the 
owner  of  the  boat  for  payment,  to  Mr.  Sikes,  for  two  cords  of 
pine- wood,  at  8  175,  and  two  cords  of  light-wood,  at  g2  — 
and  left  it  in  the  box.  The  wood  used  had  been  measured  in 
the  ranks  with  a  rod,  carried  for  the  purpose,  by  the  master, 
at  the  moment  he  reached  the  bank. 

Before,  with  all  possible  haste,  we  had  finished  wooding, 
the  Zephyr  passed  us ;  and,  during  the  rest  of  the  day,  she 
kept  out  of  our  sight.  As  often  as  we  met  a  steamboat,  or 
passed  any  flats  or  rafts,  our  men  were  calling  out  to  know 
how  far  ahead  of  us  she  was ;  and  when  the  answer  came 
back  each  time,  in  an  increasing  number  of  miles,  they  told 
us  that  our  boat  was  more  than  usually  sluggish,  owing  to  an 
uncommonly  heavy  freight ;  but  still,  for  some  time,  they 
were  ready  to  make  bets  that  we  should  get  first  to  Wil- 
mington. 

Several  times  we  were  hailed  from  the  shore,  to  take  on  a 
passenger,  or  some  light  freight ;  and  these  requests,  as  long 
as  it  was  possible,  were  promptly  complied  with — the  boat 
being  run  up,  so  as  to  rest  her  bow  upon  the  bank,  and  then 
shouldered  off  by  the  men,  as  if  she  had  been  a  skiff. 

There  were  but  three  through-passengers,  besides  myself. 
Among  them,  was  a  glue-manufacturer,  of  Baltimore — get- 
ting orders  from  the  turpentine-distillers, — and  a  turpentine- 
fanner  and  distiller.  The  glue-manufacturer  said  that,  in 
his  factory,  they  had  formerly  employed  slaves ;  had  since 
used  Irishmen,  and  now  employed  Germans.  Their  opera- 
tions were  carried  on  night  and  day,  and  one  gang  of  the 
men  had  to  relieve  another.  The  slaves  they  had  employed 
never  would  be  on  hand,  when  the  hour  for  relieving  came. 
It  was  also  necessary  to  be  careful  that  certain  operations 


NORTH   CAROLINA.  195 

should  be  performed  at  a  certain  time,  and  some  judgment 
and  watchfulness  was  necessary,  to  fix  this  time :  the  slaves 
never  could  be  made  to  care  enough  for  the  matter,  to  be 
depended  upon  for  discretion,  in  this  respect;  and  great 
injury  was  frequently  done  in  consequence.  Some  of  the 
operations  were  disagreeable,  and  they  would  put  one  another 
up  to  thinking  and  saying  that  they  ought  not  to  be  required 
to  do  such  dirty  work — and  try  to  have  their  owners  get 
them  away  from  it. 

Irishmen,  he  said,  worked  very  well,  and  to  a  certain  extent 
faithfully,  and,  for  a  time,  they  liked  them  very  much ;  but 
they  found  that,  in  about  a  fortnight,  an  Irishman  always 
thought  he  knew  more  than  his  master,  and  would  exercise 
his  discretion  a  little  too  much,  as  well  as  often  directly  dis- 
regard his  orders.  Irishmen  were,  he  said,  "  too  faithful  " — 
that  is,  self-confident  and  officious. 

At  length,  at  a  hurried  time,  they  had  employed  one  or 
two  Germans.  The  Irishmen,  of  course,  soon  quarrelled  with 
them,  and  threatened  to  leave,  if  they  were  kept.  Where- 
upon, they  were,  themselves,  all  discharged,  and  a  full  crew  of 
Germans,  at  much  less  wages,  taken ;  and  they  proved  excel- 
lent hands — steady,  plodding,  reliable,  though  they  never 
pretended  to  know  anything,  and  said  nothing  about  what 
they  could  do.  They  were  easily  instructed,  obeyed  orders 
faithfully,  and  worked  fairly  for  their  wages,  without  boasting 
or  grumbling. 

The  turpentine-distiller  gave  a  good  account  of  some  of  his 
men;  but  said  he  was  sure  they  never  performed  half  as 
much  work  as  he  himself  could ;  and  they  sometimes  would, 
of  their  own  accord,  do  twice  as  much  in  a  day,  as  could 
usually  be  got  out  of  them.  He  employed  a  Scotchman  at 
the  "  still ;"  but  he  never  would  have  white  people  at  ordi- 
nary work,  because  he  couldn't  drive  them.  He  added,  with 

o  2 


196  COTTON   AXD   SLAVERY. 

the  utmost  simplicity — and  I  do  not  think  any  one  present 
saw,  at  the  time,  how  much  the  remark  expressed  more  than 
it  was  intended  to — "  I  never  can  drive  a  white  man,  for 
I  know  I  could  never  bear  to  be  driven,  myself,  by  any- 
body." 

The  other  passenger  was  "  a  North  of  England  man,"  as 
I  suspected  from  the  first  words  I  heard  from  him — though 
he  had  been  in  this  country  for  about  twenty  years.  He  was 
a  mechanic,  and  employed  several  slaves ;  but  testified 
strongly  of  the  expensive  character  of  their  labour;  and 
declared,  without  any  reserve,  that  the  system  was  ruinous  in 
its  effects  upon  the  character  and  value  of  all  classes  of 
working  men. 

The  country  on  the  river-bank  was  nearly  all  wooded,  with, 
occasionally,  a  field  of  corn,  which,  even  in  the  low  alluvial 
meadows,  sometimes  overflowed  by  the  river,  and  enriched  by 
its  deposit,  had  evidently  yielded  but  a  very  meagre  crop — 
the  stalks  standing  singly,,  at  great  distances,  and  very  small. 
The  greater  part,  even  of  these  once  rich  low  lands,  that  had 
been  in  cultivation,  were  now  "turned  out,"  and  covered 
either  with  pines  or  broom-sedge  and  brushwood. 

At  some  seventy  or  eighty  miles,  I  should  think,  below 
Fayetteville,  the  banks  became  lower,  and  there  was  much 
swamp  land,  in  which  the  ground  was  often  covered  with  a 
confusion  of  logs  and  sawn  lumber,  mingled  with  other  rub- 
bish, left  by  floods  of  the  river.  The  standing  timber  was 
very  large,  and  many  of  the  trees  were  hung  with  the  long, 
waving  drapery  of  the  tylandria,  or  Spanish  moss,  which,  as 
well  as  the  mistletoe,  I  here  first  saw  in  profusion.  There 
was  also  a  thick  network  among  the  trees,  of  beautiful  climb- 
ing plants.  I  observed  some  very  large  grape-vines,  and 
many  trees  of  greater  size  than  I  ever  saw  of  their  species 
before.  I  infer  that  this  soil,  properly  reclaimed,  and  pro- 


NORTH    CAROLINA.  197 

tected  from  floods  of  the  river,  might  be  most  profitably  used 
in  the  culture  of  the  various  half-tropical  trees  and  shrubs,  of 
whose  fruits  we  now  import  so  large  and  costly  an  amount. 
The  fig,  I  have  been  informed,  grows  and  bears  luxuriantly  at 
Wilmington,  seldom  or  never  suffering  in  its  wood,  though  a 
crop  of  fruit  may  be  occasionally  injured  by  a  severe  late 
spring  frost.  The  almond,  doubtless,  would  succeed  equally 
well,  so  also  the  olive;  but  of  none  of  these  is  there  the 
slightest  commercial  value  produced  in  North  Carolina,  or  in 
all  our  country. 

In  the  evening  we  passed  many  boats  and  rafts,  blazing 
with  great  fires,  made  upon  a  thick  bed  of  clay,  and  their 
crews  singing  at  their  sweeps.  Twenty  miles  above  Wil- 
mington, the  shores  became  marshy,  the  river  wide,  and  the 
woody  screen  that  had  hitherto,  in  a  great  degree,  hid  the 
nakedness  of  the  land,  was  withdrawn,  leaving  open  to  view 
only  broad,  reedy  savannahs,  on  either  side. 

We  reached  Wilmington,  the  port  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river,  at  half-past  nine.  Taking  a  carriage,  I  was  driven  first 
to  one  hotel  and  afterwards  to  another.  They  were  both  so 
crowded  with  guests,  and  excessive  business  duties  so  pre- 
vented the  clerks  from  being  tolerably  civil  to  me,  that  I 
feared  if  I  remained  in  either  of  them  I  should  have  another 
Norfolk  experience.  While  I  was  endeavouring  to  ascertain 
if  there  was  a  third  public-house,  in  which  I  might,  perhaps, 
obtain  a  private  room,  my  eye  fell  upon  an  advertisement  of  a 
new  railroad  line  of  passage  to  Charleston.  A  boat,  to  take 
passengers  to  the  railroad,  was  to  start  every  night,  from 
Wilmington,  at  ten  o'clock.  It  was  already  something  past 
ten ;  but  being  pretty  sure  that  she  would  not  get  off  punc- 
tually, and  having  a  strong  resisting  impulse  to  being  packed 
away  in  a  close  room,  with  any  chance  stranger  the  clerk  of 
the  house  might  choose  to  couple  me  with,  I  shouldered  my 


108  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

baggage  and  ran  for  the  wharves.  At  half-past  ten  I  was 
looking  at  Wilmington  over  the  stern  of  another  little  wheel- 
barrow-steamboat, pushing  back  up  the  river.  When  or  how 
I  was  to  be  taken  to  Charleston,  I  had  not  yet  been  able  to 
ascertain.  The  captain  assured  me  it  was  all  right,  and 
demanded  twenty  dollars.  Being  in  his  power  I  gave  it 
to  him,  and  received  in  return  a  pocketful  of  tickets, 
guaranteeing  the  bearer  passage  from  place  to  place ;  of 
not  one  of  which  places  had  I  ever  heard  before,  except 
Charleston. 

The  cabin  was  small,  dirty,  crowded,  close,  and  smoky. 
Finding  a  warm  spot  in  the  deck,  over  the  furnace,  and  to 
leeward  of  the  chimney,  I  pillowed  myself  on  my  luggage  and 
went  to  sleep. 

The  ringing  of  the  boat's  bell  awoke  me,  after  no  great 
lapse  of  time,  and  I  found  we  were  in  a  small  creek,  heading 
southward.  Presently  we  reached  a  wharf,  near  which  stood 
a  locomotive  and  train.  A  long,  narrow  plank  having  been 
run  out,  half  a  dozen  white  men,  including  myself,  went  on 
shore.  Then  followed  as  many  negroes,  who  appeared  to  be 
a  recent  purchase  of  their  owner.  Owing,  probably,  to  an 
unusually  low  tide,  there  was  a  steep  ascent  from  the  boat  to 
the  wharf,  and  I  was  amused  to  see  the  anxiety  of  this  gentle- 
man for  the  safe  landing  of  his  property,  and  especially  to 
hear  him  curse  them  for  their  carelessness,  as  if  their  lives 
were  of  much  greater  value  to  him  than  to  themselves. 
One  was  a  woman.  All  carried  over  their  shoulders  some 
little  baggage,  probably  all  their  personal  effects,  slung  in  a 
blanket ;  and  one  had  a  dog,  whose  safe  landing  caused  him 
nearly  as  much  anxiety  as  his  own  did  Ms  owner. 

"  Gib  me  da  dog,  now,"  said  the  dog's  owner,  standing 
half  way  up  the  plank. 

"  Damn  the  dog,"  said  the  negro's  owner ;  "  give  me  your 


NOBTH    CAROLINA.  199 

hand  up  here.     Let  go  of  the  dog;  d'ye  hear!     Let  Mm 
take  care  of  himself." 

But  the  negro  hugged  the  dog,  and  brought  him  safely  on 
shore. 

After  a  short  delay  the  train  started :  the  single  passenger 
car  was  a  fine  one  (made  at  "Wilmington,  Delaware),  and  just 
sufficiently  warmed.  I  should  have  slept  again  if  it  had  not 
been  that  two  of  the  six  inmates  were  drunk — one  of  them 
uproariously.  «. 

Passing  through  long  stretches  of  cypress  swamps,  with 
occasional  intervals  of  either  pine-barrens,  or  clear  water 
ponds,  in  about  two  hours  we  came,  in  the  midst  of  the  woods, 
to  the  end  of  the  rails.  In  the  vicinity  could  be  seen  a  small 
tent,  a  shanty  of  loose  boards,  and  a  large,  subdued  fire, 
around  which,  upon  the  ground,  a  considerable  number  of  men 
were  stretched  out  asleep.  This  was  the  camp  of  the  hands 
engaged  in  laying  the  rails,  and  who  were  thus  daily  extend- 
ing the  distance  which  the  locomotive  could  run. 

The  conductor  told  me  that  there  was  here  a  break  of  about 
eighty  miles  in  the  rail,  over  which  I  should  be  transferred 
by  a  stage  coach,  which  would  come  as  soon  as  possible  after 
the  driver  knew  that  the  train  had  arrived.  To  inform  him 
of  this,  the  locomotive  trumpeted  loud  and  long. 

The  negro  property,  which  had  been  brought  up  in  a 
freight  car,  was  immediately  let  out  on  the  stoppage  of  the 
train.  As  it  stepped  on  to  the  platform,  the  owner  asked, 
"  Are  you  all  here  ?" 

"  Yes,  massa,  we  Is  all  heah,"  answered  one.  "  Do  dysef 
no  harm,  for  we's  all  heah,"  added  another,  in  an  under 
tone. 

The  negroes  immediately  gathered  some  wood,  and  taking 
a  brand  from  the  railroad  hands,  made  a  fire  for  themselves ; 
then,  all  but  the  woman,  opening  their  bundles,  wrapped 


200  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

themselves  in  their  blankets  and  went  to  sleep.     The  won* 
bare-headed,  and  very  inadequately  clothed  as  she  was,  sto  ci 
for  a  long  time  alone,  erect  and  statue-like,  her  head  bowr 
gazing  in  the  fire.     She  had  taken  no  part  in  the  ligM  cl1 
of  the  others,  and  had  given  them  no  assistance  in  ma. 
the  fire.     Her  dress  too  was  not  the  usual  plantation  apparel. 
It  was  all  sadly  suggestive. 

The  principal  other  freight  of  the  train  was  one  hundred 
and  twenty  bales  of  Northern  hay.  It  belonged,  as  the  con- 
ductor told  me,  to  a  planter  who  lived  some  twenty  miles 
beyond  here,  and  who  had  bought  it  in  Wilmington  at  a 
dollar  and  a  half  a  hundred  weight,  to  feed  his  mules.  In- 
cluding the  steamboat  and  railroad  freight,  and  all  the 
labour  of  getting  it  to  his  stables,  its  entire  cost  to  him 
would  not  be  much  less  than  two  dollars  a  hundred,  or  at 
least  four  times  as  much  as  it  would  have  cost  to  raise  and 
make  it  in  the  interior  of  New  York  or  New  England. 
There  are  not  only  several  forage  crops  which  can  be  raised 
in  South  Carolina,  that  cannot  be  grown  on  account  of  the 
severity  of  the  winter  in  the  Free  States,  but,  on  a  farm 
near  Fayetteville,  a  few  days  before,  I  had  seen  a  crop  of 
natural  grass  growing  in  half-cultivated  land,  dead  upon  the 
ground ;  which,  I  think,  would  have  made,  if  it  had  been 
cut  and  well  treated  in  the  summer,  three  tons  of  hay  to 
the  acre.  The  owner  of  the  land  said  that  there  was  no 
better  hay  than  it  would  have  made,  but  he  hadn't  had  time 
to  attend  to  it.  He  had  as  much  as  his  hands  could  do  of 
other  work  at  the  period  of  the  year  when  it  should  have  been 
made. 

Probably  the  ease  was  similar  with  the  planter  who  had 
bought  this  Northern  hay  at  a  price  four  times  that  which  it 
would  have  cost  a  Northern  farmer  to  make  it.  He  had  pre- 
ferred to  employ  his  slaves  at  other  business. 


NORTH   CAEOLINA.  201 

rhe  inference  must  be,  either  that  there  was  most  impro- 
ba&ly-foolish,  bad  management,  or  that  the  slaves  were  more 
p^jfitably  employed  in  cultivating  cotton,  than  they  could 
have,  x  en  in  cultivating  maize,  or  other  forage  crops. 
:'  ^  put  the  case,  some  days  afterwards,  to  an  English 
merchant,  who  had  had  good  opportunities,  and  made  it  a 
part  of  his  business  to  study  such  matters. 

"  I  have  no  doubt,"  said  he,  "  that  if  hay  cannot  be  ob- 
tained here,  other  valuable  forage  can,  with  less  labour  than 
anywhere  at  the  North ;  and  all  the  Southern  agricultural 
journals  sustain  this  opinion,  and  declare  it  to  be  purely  bad 
management  that  neglects  these  crops,  and  devotes  labour  to 
cotton,  so  exclusively.  Probably,  it  is  so — at  the  present 
cost  of  forage.  Nevertheless,  the  feet  is  also  true,  as  the 
planters  assert,  that  they  cannot  afford  to  apply  their  labour 
to  anything  else  but  cotton.  And  yet,  they  complain  that 
the  price  of  cotton  is  so  low  that  there  is  no  profit  in  grow- 
ing it,  which  is  evidently  false.  You  see  that  they  prefer 
buying  hay  to  raising  it  at,  to  say  the  least,  three  times  what 
it  costs  your  Northern  farmers  to  raise  it.  Of  course,  if  cotton 
could  be  grown  in  New  York  and  Ohio,  it  could  be  afforded 
at  one-third  the  cost  it  is  here — say  at  three  cents  per  pound. 
And  that  is  my  solution  of  the  slavery  question.  Bring  \ 
cotton  down  to  three  cents  a  pound,  and  there  would  be  more 
abolitionists  in  South  Carolina  than  in  Massachusetts.  If^ 
that  can  be  brought  about,  in  any  way — and  it  is  not  impos- 
sible that  we  may  live  to  see  it,  as  our  railways  are  extended 
in  India,  and  the  French  enlarge  their  free-labour  plantations 
in  Algiers — there  will  be  an  end  of  slavery." 

It  was  just  one  o'clock  when  the  stage-coach  came  for  us. 
There  was  but  one  passenger  beside  myself — a  Philadelphia 
gentleman,  going  to  Columbia.  We  proceeded  very  slowly 
for  about  three  miles,  across  a  swamp,  upon  a  "corduroy 


202  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

road ;"  then  more  rapidly,  over  rough  ground,  being  tossed 
about  in  the  coach  most  severely,  for  six  or  eight  miles 
further.  Besides  the  driver,  there  was  on  the  box  the  agent 
or  superintendent  of  the  coach  line,  who  now  opened  the 
doors,  and  we  found  ourselves  before  a  log  stable,  in  the 
midst  of  a  forest  of  large  pines.  The  driver  took  out  a 
horse,  and,  mounting  him,  rode  off,  and  we  collected  wood, 
splitting  it  with  a  hatchet  that  was  carried  on  the  coach,  and, 
lighting  it  from  the  coach  lamp,  made  a  fire.  It  was  very 
cold,  ice  half  an  inch  thick,  and  a  heavy  hoar  frost.  We 
complained  to  the  agent  that  there  was  no  straw  in  the 
coach  bottom,  while  there  were  large  holes  bored  in  it,  that 
kept  our  feet  excessively  cold.  He  said  there  was  no  straw 
to  be  had  in  the  country.  They  were  obliged  to  bed  their 
horses  with  pine  leaves,  which  were  damp,  and  would  be  of 
no  service  to  us.  The  necessity  for  the  holes  he  did  not 
immediately  explain,  and  we,  in  the  exercise  of  our  Yankee 
privilege,  resolved  that  they  were  made  with  reference  to  the 
habit  of  expectoration,  which  we  had  observed  in  the  car  to 
be  very  general  and  excessive. 

In  about  half  an  hour  the  driver  of  the  new  stage  came  to 
us  on  the  horse  that  the  first  had  ridden  away.  A  new  set 
of  horses  was  brought  out  and  attached  to  the  coach,  and  we 
were  driven  on  again.  An  hour  later,  the  sun  rose;  wo 
were  still  in  pine-barrens,  once  in  several  miles  passing 
through  a  clearing,  with  a  log  farm-house,  and  a  few  negro 
huts  about  it ;  often  through  cypress  swamps,  and  long  pools 
of  water.  At  the  end  of  ten  miles  we  breakfasted,  and 
changed  horses  and  drivers  at  a  steam  saw-mill.  A  few  miles 
further  on,  we  were  asked  to  get  on  the  top  of  the  coach, 
while  it  was  driven  through  a  swamp,  in  which  the  water  was 
over  the  road,  for  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  to  such  a  depth  that  it 
covered  the  foot-board.  The  horses  really  groaned,  as  they 


NORTH   CAROLINA.  203 

pushed  the  thin  ice  away  with  their  necks,  and  were  very 
near  swimming.  The  holes  in  the  coach  bottom,  the  agent 
now  told  us,  were  to  allow  the  water  that  would  here  enter 
the  body  to  flow  out.  At  the  end  of  these  ten  miles  we 
changed  again,  at  a  cotton  planter's  house — a  very  neat,  well- 
built  house,  having  pine  trees  about  it,  but  very  poor,  old, 
negro  quarters. 

Since  the  long  ford  we  had  kept  the  top,  the  inside  of  the 
coach  being  wet,  and  I  had  been  greatly  pleased  with  the  driv- 
ing— the  coachman,  a  steady-going  sort  of  a  fellow,  saying  but 
little  to  his  horses,  and  doing  what  swearing  he  thought 
necessary  in  English ;  driving,  too,  with  great  judgment  and 
skill.  The  coach  was  a  fine,  roomy,  old-fashioned,  fragrant, 
leathery  affair,  and  the  horses  the  best  I  had  seen  this  side 
of  Virginia.  I  could  not  resist  expressing  my  pleasure 
with  the  whole  establishment.  The  new  team  was  ad- 
mirable ;  four  sleek,  well-governed,  eager,  sorrel  cobs,  and 
the  driver,  a  staid,  bronzed-faced  man,  keeping  them  tight 
in  hand,  drove  quietly  and  neatly,  his  whip  in  the  socket. 
After  about  fifteen  minutes,  during  which  he  had  been  en- 
gaged in  hushing  down  their  too  great  impetuosity,  he  took 
out  a  large  silver  hunting-watch,  and  asked  what  time  it 
was. 

"  Quarter  past  eleven,"  said  the  agent. 

"  Twelve  minutes  past,"  said  the  Philadelphia!!. 

"  Well,  fourteen,  only,  I  am,"  said  the  agent. 

"  Thirteen,"  said  I. 

"  Just  thirteen,  I  am,"  said  the  driver,  slipping  back  his 
watch  to  its  place,  and  then,  to  the  agent,  "  ha'an't  touched 
a  hand  of  her  since  I  left  old  Lancaster." 

Suddenly  guessing  the  meaning  of  what  had  been  for 
some  time  astonishing  me — "  You  are  from  the  North  ?"  I 
asked. 


204  COTTON  AND   SLAVERY. 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  And  you,  too,  Mr.  Agent  ?" 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  And  the  coach,  and  the  cattle,  and  all  ?" 

"  All  from  Pennsylvania." 

"•How  long  have  you  been  here  ?" 

"  We  have  been  here  about  a  fortnight,  stocking  the  road. 
We  commenced  regular  trips  yesterday.  You  are  the  first 
passenger  through,  sir." 

It  was,  in  fact,  merely  a  transfer  from  one  of  the  old 
National  Eoad  lines,  complete.  After  a  little  further 
conversation,  I  asked,  "How  do  you  like  the  country, 
here  ?" 

'  Very  nice  country,"  said  the  agent. 

"It's  the  cussedest  poor  country  God  ever  created," 
napped  out  the  driver. 

"  You  have  to  keep  your  horses  on " 

"Shucks!*  damn  it." 

The  character  of  the  scenery  was  novel  to  me,  the  surface 
very  flat,  the  soil  a  fine-grained,  silvery  white  sand,  shaded 
by  a  continuous  forest  of  large  pines,  which  had  shed  their 
lower  branches,  so  that  we  could  see  from  the  coach-top,  to 
the  distance  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  everything  upon  the 
ground.  In  the  swamps,  which  were  frequent  and  extensive, 
and  on  their  borders,  the  pines  gave  place  to  cypresses,  with 
great  pedestal  trunks,  and  protuberant  roots,  throwing  up  an 
awkward  dwarf  progeny  of  shrub,  cypress,  and  curious  bul- 
bous-like  stumps,  called  "cypress-knees."  Mingled  with 
these  were  a  few  of  our  common  deciduous  trees,  the  wliite- 
shafted  sycamore,  the  gray  beech,  and  the  shrubby  black- 
jack oak,  with  broad  leaves,  brown  and  dead,  yet  glossy,  and 
reflecting  the  sunbeams.  Somewhat  rarely,  the  red  cedar, 

*  Husks  of  maize. 


NORTH   CAROLINA.  205 

and  more  frequently  than  any  other  except  the  cypress,  the 
beautiful  American  holly.  Added  to  these,  there  was  often 
a  thick  undergrowth  of  evergreen  shrubs.  Vines  and 
creepers  of  various  kinds  grew  to  the  tops  of  the  tallest  trees 
and  dangled  beneath  and  l?etween  their  branches,  in  intricate 
net-work.  The  tylandria  hung  in  festoons,  sometimes 
several  feet  in  length,  and  often  completely  clothed  the 
trunks,  and  every  branch  of  the  trees  in  the  low  ground.  It 
is  like  a  fringe  of  tangled  hair,  of  a  light  gray  pearly  colour, 
and  sometimes  produces  exquisite  effects  when  slightly  veil- 
ing the  dark  green,  purple,  and  scarlet  of  the  cedar,  and  the 
holly  with  their  berries.  The  mistletoe  also  grew  in  large, 
vivid,  green  tufts,  on  the  ends  of  the  branches  of  the  oldest 
and  largest  trees.  A  small  fine  and  wiry  dead  grass,  hardly 
perceptible,  even  in  the  most  open  ground,  from  the  coach- 
tops,  was  the  only  sign  of  herbage.  Large  black  buzzards 
were  constantly  in  sight,  sailing  slowly,  high  above  the  tree- 
tops.  Flocks  of  larks,  quails,  and  robins  were  common,  as 
were  also  doves,  swiftly  flying  in  small  companies.  The  red- 
headed woodpecker  could  at  any  time  be  heard  hammering 
the  old  tree-trunks,  and  would  sometimes  show  himself,  after 
his  rat-tat,  cocking  his  head  archly,  and  listening  to  hear  if 
the  worm  moved  under  the  bark.  The  drivers  told  me  that 
they  had  on  previous  days,  as  they  went  over  the  road,  seen 
deer,  turkeys,  and  wild  hogs. 

At  every  tenth  mile,  or  thereabout,  we  changed  horses ; 
and,  generally,  were  allowed  half  an  hour  to  stroll  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  stable — the  agent  observing  that  we 
could  reach  the  end  of  the  staging  some  hours  before  the  cars 
should  leave  to  take  us  further  ;  and,  as  there  were  no  good 
accommodations  for  sleeping  there,  we  would  pass  the  time 
quite  as  pleasantly  on  the  road.  We  dined  at  "  Marion 


206  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

County  House,"  a  pleasant  little  village  (and  the  only  village 
we  saw  during  the  day),  with  a  fine  pine-grove,  a  broad  street, 
a  court-house,  a  church  or  two,  a  school-house,  and  a  dozen 
or  twenty  dwellings.  Towards  night,  we  crossed  the  Great 
Pedee  of  the  maps,  the  Big  Pede»  of  the  natives,  in  a  flat 
boat.  A  large  quantity  of  cotton,  in  bales,  was  upon  the 
bank,  ready  for  loading  into  a  steamboat — when  one  should 
arrive — for  Charleston. 

The  country  was  very  thinly  peopled  ;  lone  houses  often 
being  several  miles  apart.  The  large  majority  of  the  dwell- 
ings were  of  logs,  and  even  those  of  the  white  people  were 
often  without  glass  windows.  In  the  better  class  of  cabins, 
the  roof  is  usually  built  with  a  curve,  so  as  to  project  eight 
or  ten  feet  beyond  the  log- wall ;  and  a  part  of  this  space,  ex- 
terior to  the  logs,  is  enclosed  with  boards,  making  an  addi- 
tional small  room — the  remainder  forms  an  open  porch.  The 
whole  cabin  is  often  elevated  on  four  corner-posts,  two  or 
three  feet  from  the  ground,  so  that  the  air  may  circulate 
under  it.  The  fire-place  is  built  at  the  end  of  the  house,  of 
sticks  and  clay,  and  the  chimney  is  carried  up  outside,  and 
often  detached  from  the  log- walls  ;  but  the  roof  is  extended  at 
the  gable,  until  in  a  line  with  its  outer  side.  The  porch  has 
a  railing  in  front,  and  a  wide  shelf  at  the  end,  on  which  a 
bucket  of  water,  a  gourd,  and  hand-basin,  are  usually  placed. 
There  are  chairs,  or  benches,  in  the  porch,  and  you  often  see 
women  sitting  at  work  in  it,  as  in  Germany. 

The  logs  are  usually  hewn  but  little ;  and,  of  course,  as 
they  are  laid  up,  there  will  be  wide  interstices  between  them 
— which  are  increased  by  subsequent  shrinking.  These,  very 
commonly,  are  not  "  chinked,"  or  filled  up  in  any  way  ;  nor 
is  the  wall  lined  on  the  inside.  Through  the  chinks,  as  you 
pass  along  the  road,  you  may  often  see  all  that  is  going  on  in 


SOUTH    CAROLINA.  207 

the  hmse ;  and,  at  night,  the  light  of  the  fire  shines  brightly 
out  on  all  sides. 

Cibins,  of  this  class,  would  almost  always  be  flanked  by 
two  or  three  negro  huts.  The  cabins  of  the  poor  whiles, 
mojh  the  largest  in  number,  were  of  a  meaner  sort — being 
mere  square  pens  of  logs,  roofed  over,  provided  with  a  chim- 
ney, and  usually  with  a  shed  of  boards,  supported  by  rough 
psts,  before  the  door. 

Occasionally,  where,  near  the  banks  of  a  water-course,  the 
alvery  sand  was  darkened  by  a  considerable  intermixture  of 
nould,  there  would  be  a  large  plantation,  with  negro-quarters, 
ind  a  cotton-press  and  gin- house.  We  passed  half  a  dozen  of 
these,  perhaps,  during:  the  day.  Where  the  owners  resided 
in  them,  they  would  have  comfortable-looking  residences,  not 
unlike  the  better  class  ot  Mow  England  farm-houses.  On  the 
largest,  however,  there  TVHS  no  lesidence  for  the  owner,  at  all, 
only  a  small  cottage,  or  whitewashed  cabin,  for  the  overseer. 
The  negro-cabins,  here,  were  the  smallest  I  had  seen — I 
thought  not  more  than  twelve  feet  square,  inside.  They  stood 
in  two  rows,  with  a  wide  street  between  them.  They  were 
built  of  logs,  with  no  windows — no  opening  at  all,  except 
the  doorway,  with  a  chimney  of  sticks  and  mud;  with 
no  trees  about  them,  no  porches,  or  shades,  of  any  kind. 
Except  for  the  chimney — the  purpose  of  which  I  should  not 
readily  have  guessed  if  I  had  seen  one  of  them  in  New 
England — I  should  have  conjectured  that  it  had  been  built 
for  a  powder-house,  or  perhaps  an  ice-house — never  for  an 
aninal  to  sleep  in. 

Vc  stopped,  for  some  time,  on  this  plantation,  near  where 
soms  thirty  men  and  women  were  at  work,  repairing  the  road. 
The  women  were  in  majority,  and  were  engaged  at  exactly 
the  same  labour  as  the  men ;  driving  the  carts,  loading  them 
with  dirt,  and  dumping  them  upon  the  road ;  cutting  down 


208  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

trees,  and  drawing  wood  by  hand,  to  lay  across  the  miry 
places ;  hoeing,  and  shovelling.  They  were  dressed  in  eoarse 
gray  gowns,  generally  very  much  burned,  and  very  Qirty; 
which,  for  greater  convenience  of  working  in  the  mud,  vere 
reefed  up  with  a  cord  drawn  tightly  around  the  body,  a  little 
above  the  hips — the  spare  amount  of  skirt  bagging  out  be- 
tween this  and  the  waist-proper.  On  their  legs  were  locse 
leggins,  or  pieces  of  blanket  or  bagging  wrapped  about,  aid 
lashed  with  thongs  ;  and  they  wore  very  heavy  shoes.  Mo»t 
of  them  had  handkerchiefs,  only,  tied  around  their  heads, 
some  wore  men's  caps,  or  old  slouched  hats,  and  several  wer« 
bareheaded. 

The  overseer  rode  about  among  them,  on  a  horse,  carrying 
in  his  hand  a  raw-hide  whip,  constantly  directing  and  en- 
couraging them ;  but,  as  my  companion  and  I,  both,  several 
times  noticed,  as  often  as  he  visited  one  end  of  the  line  of 
operations,  the  hands  at  the  other  end  would  discontinue 
their  labour,  until  he  turned  to  ride  towards  them  again. 
Clumsy,  awkward,  gross,  elephantine  in  all  their  movements  ; 
pouting,  grinning,  and  leering  at  us  ;  sly,  sensual,  and  shame- 
less, in  all  their  expressions  and  demeanour ;  I  never  before 
had  witnessed,  I  thought,  anything  more  revolting  than  the 
whole  scene. 

At  length,  the  overseer  dismounted  from  his  horse,  and, 
giving  him  to  a  boy  to  take  to  the  stables,  got  upon  the 
coach,  and  rode  with  us  several  miles.  From  the  conversation 
I  had  with  him,  as  well  as  from  what  I  saw  of  his  conduct  in 
the  field,  I  judged  that  he  was  an  uncommonly  fit  mar  for 
his  duties ;  at  least  ordinarily  amiable  in  disposition,  and  not 
passionate  ;  but  deliberate,  watchful,  and  efficient.  I  thought 
he  would  be  not  only  a  good  economist,  but  a  firm  and  con- 
siderate officer  or  master. 

If  these  women,  and  their  children  after  them,  were  abvays 


SOUTH    CAROLINA.  209 

naturally  and  necessarily  to  remain  of  the  character  and 
capacity  stamped  on  their  faces — as  is  probably  the  opinion  of 
their  owner,  in  common  with  most  wealthy  South  Carolina 
planters — I  don't  know  that  they  could  be  much  less  miserably 
situated,  or  guided  more  for  their  own  good  and  that  of  the 
world,  than  they  were.  They  were  fat  enough,  and  didn't 
look  as  if  they  were  at  all  overworked,  or  harassed  by  cares, 
or  oppressed  by  a  consciousness  of  their  degradation.  If  that 
is  all — as  some  think. 

Afterwards,  while  we  were  changing  at  a  house  near  a 
crossing  of  roads,  strolling  off  in  the  woods  for  a  short  dis- 
tance, I  came  upon  two  small  white-topped  waggons,  each 
with  a  pair  of  horses  feeding  at  its  pole ;  near  them  was  a  dull 
camp  fire,  with  a  bake-kettle  and  coffee-pot,  some  blankets 
and  a  chest  upon  the  ground,  and  an  old  negro  sitting  with 
his  head  bowed  down  over  a  meal  sack,  while  a  negro  boy 
was  combing  his  wool  with  a  common  horse-card.  "  Good 
evening,  uncle,"  said  I,  approaching  them.  "  Good  evening, 
sar,"  he  answered,  without  looking  up. 

"  Where  are  you  going  ?" 

"  Well,  we  ain't  gwine  nower,  master ;  we's  peddlin'  tobacco 
roun." 

"  Where  did  you  come  from  ?" 

"  From  Kockingham  County,  Norf  Car'lina,  master." 

"  How  long  have  you  been  coming  from  there  ?" 

"  'Twill  be  seven  weeks,  to-morrow,  sar,  sin  we  leff  home." 

"  Have  you  most  sold  out  ?" 

"  We  had  a  hundred  and  seventy-five  boxes  in  both  wag- 
gons, and  we's  sold  all  but  sixty.  Want  to  buy  some  tobacco, 
master  ?"  (Looking  up.)  •*  , 

"  No,  thank  you  ;  I  am  only  waiting  here,  while  the  coach 
changes.  How  much  tobacco  is  there  in  a  box  ?" 

"  Seventy-five  pound." 

VOL.  I.  P 


210  COTTON   AND    8LAVEBY. 

"  Are  these  the  boxes  ?" 

"No,  them  is  our  provision  boxes,  master.  Show  de 
gemman  some  of  der  tobacco,  dah."  (To  the  boy.) 

A  couple  of  negroes  here  passed  along  near  us ;  the  old 
man  hailed  them : 

"  Ho  dah,  boys  !     Doan  you  want  to  buy  some  backey  ?" 

"  No."     (Decidedly.) 

"  Well,  I'm  sorry  for  it."     (Keproachfully.) 

"  Are  you  bound  homeward,  now  ?"   I  asked. 

"  No,  master ;  wish  me  was ;  got  to  sell  all  our  backey 
fuss ;  you  don't  want  none,  master,  does  you  ?  Doan  you 
tink  it  pretty  fair  tobacco,  sar  ?  Juss  try  it :  it's  right  sweet, 
reckon>  you'll  find." 

"  I  don't  wish  any,  thank  you  ;  I  never  use  it.  Is  your 
master  with  you  ?" 

"  No,  sar  ;  he's  gone  across  to  Marion,  to-day." 

"  Do  you  like  to  be  travelling  about,  in  this  way  ?" 

"  Yes,  master  ;  I  likes  it  very  well." 

"  Better  than  staying  at  home,  eh  ?" 

"  Well,  I  likes  my  country  better  dan  dis ;  must  say  dat, 
master  ;  likes  my  country  better  dan  dis.  I'se  a  free  nigger 
in  my  country,  master." 

"  Oh,  you  are  a  free  man,  are  you !  North  Carolina  is  a 
better  country  than  this,  for  free  men,  I  suppose." 

"  Yes,  master,  I  likes  my  country  de  best ;  I  gets  five 
dollar  a  month  for  dat  boy."  (Hastily,  to  change  the 
subject.) 

"  He  is  your  son,  is  he  ?" 

"  Yes,  sar ;  he  drives  dat  waggon,  I  drives  dis ;  and  I  haant 
seen  him  fore,  master,  for  six  weeks,  till  dis  mornin'." 

"  How  were  you  separated  ?" 

"  We  separated  six  weeks  ago,  sar,  and  we  agreed  to  meet 
here,  last  night.  We  didn',  dough,  till  dis  mornin'." 


.     SOUTH   CAROLINA.  211 

The  old  man's  tone  softened,  and  he  regarded  his  son  with 
earnestness. 

"Tears,  dough,  we  was  bofe  heah,  last  night;  but  I 
couldn't  find  um  till  dis  inornin'.  Dis  mornin'  some  niggars 
tole  me  dar  war  a  niggar  camped  off  yander  in  de  wood  ;  and 
I  knew  'twas  him,  and  I  went  an'  found,  him  right  off." 

"  And  what  wages  do  you  get  for  yourself  ?" 

"  Ten  dollars  a  month,  master." 

"  That's  pretty  good  wages." 

"  Yes,  master,  any  niggar  can  get  good  wages  if  he's  a 
mind  to  be  industrious,  no  matter  wedder  he's  slave  or  free." 

"  So  you  don't  like  this  country  as  well  as  North  Caro- 
lina?" 

"  No,  master.  Fac  is,  master,  'pears  like  wite  folks  doan' 
ginerally  like  niggars  in  dis  country ;  day  doan'  ginerally 
talk  so  to  niggars  like  as  do  in  my  country ;  de  niggars  ain't 
so  happy  heah ;  'pears  like  de  wite  folks  was  kind  o'  different, 
somehow.  I  doan'  like  dis  country  so  well ;  my  country  suits 
me  very  well." 

"  Well,  I've  been  thinking,  myself,  the  niggars  did  not 
look  so  well  here  as  they  did  in  North  Carolina  and  Virginia ; 
they  are  not  so  well  clothed,  and  they  don't  appear  so  bright 
as  they  do  there." 

"  Well,  master,  Sundays  dey  is  mighty  well  clothed,  dis 
country ;  'pears  like  dere  an't  nobody  looks  better  Sundays 
dan  dey  do.  But  Lord  !  workin'  days,  seems  like  dey  haden 
no  close  dey  could  keep  on  'um  at  all,  master.  Dey  is  a'mos' 
naked,  wen  deys  at  work,  some  on  'em.  Why,  master,  up  in 
our  country,  de  wite  folks — why,  some  on  'em  has  ten  or 
twelve  niggars ;  dey  doan'  hev  no  real  big  plantation,  like 
dey  has  heah,  but  some  on  'em  has  ten  or  twelve  niggars,  may 
be,  and  dey  juss  lives  and  talks  along  wid  'em ;  and  dey 
treats  'um  most  as  if  dem  was  dar  own  chile.  Dey  doan' 

p  2 


212  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

keep  no  niggars  dey  can't  treat  so  ;  dey  won't  keep  'em,  wr 
be  bodered  wid  'em.  If  dey  gets  a  niggar  and  he  doan 
behave  himself,  day  won't  keep  him  ;  dey  juss  tell  him,  sar, 
he  must  look  up  anudder  master,  and  if  he  doan'  find  hisself 
one,  I  tell  'ou,  when  de  trader  cum  along,  dey  sells  him,  and 
he  totes  him  away.  Dey  allers  sell  off  all  de  bad  niggars  out 
of  our  country ;  dat's  de  way  all  de  bad  niggar  and  all  dem 
no-account  niggar  keep  a  cumin'  down  heah ;  dat's  de  way 
on't,  master." 

"  Yes,  that's  the  way  of  it,  I  suppose ;  these  big  plan- 
tations are  not  just  the  best  thing  for  niggers,  I  see  that 
plainly." 

"  Master,  you  wan't  raise  in  dis  country,  was  'ou  ?" 

"  No  ;  I  came  from  the  North." 

"  I  tort  so,  sar  ;  I  knew  'ou  wan't  one  of  dis  country  people ; 
'peared  like  'ou  was  one  o'  my  country  people,  way  'ou  talks ; 
and  I  loves  dem  kine  of  people.  Won't  you  take  some 
whisky,  sar  ?  Heah,  you  boy  !  bring  dat  jug  of  whisky  dah, 
out  o'  my  waggon;  in  dah, — in  dat  box  under  dem  foddar." 

"No,  don't  trouble  yourself,  I  am  very  much  obliged  to 
you ;  but  I  don't  like  to  drink  whisky." 

"  Like  to  have  you  drink  some,  master,  if  you'd  like  it. 
You's  right  welcome  to  it.  'Pears  like  I  knew  you  was  one 
of  my  country  people.  Ever  been  in  Greensboro/  master  ? 

/at's  in  Guilford." 
"  No,  I  never  was  there.     I  came  from  New  York,  further 
xM^orth  than  your  country." 

"  New  York,  did  'ou,  master  ?   I  heerd  New  York  was  what 
dey  calls  a  Free  State  ;  all  de  niggars  free  dah." 
i          "  Yes,  that  is  so." 

\  "  Not  no  slaves  at  all1*  well,  I  expec  dat's  a  good  ting,  for 
all  de  niggars  to  be  free.  Greensboro'  is  a  right  comely 
town ;  tain't  like  dese  heah  Souf  Car'lina  towns." 


SOUTH    CAROLINA.  213 

"  I  have  heard  it  spoken  of  as  a  beautiful  town,  and  there 
are  some  fine  people  there." 

"  Yes,  dere's  Mr.  -  — ,  I  knows  him— he's  a  mighty 

good  man." 

"  Do  you  know  Mr. ?" 

"  0  yes,  sar,  he's  a  mighty  fine  man,  he  is,  master ;  ain't  no 
better  kind  of  man  dan  him." 

"  Well,  I  must  go,  or  the  coach  will  be  kept  waiting  for  me. 
(rood-bye  to  you." 

"  Far'well,  master,  far 'well ;  'pears  like  it's  done  me  good 
to  see  a  man  dat's  cum  out  of  my  country  again.  Far'well, 
master." 

We  took  supper  at  a  neat  log-cabin,  standing  a  short 
distance  off  the  road,  with  a  beautiful  evergreen  oak,  the  first 
I  had  observed,  in  front  of  it.  There  was  no  glass  in  the 
windows,  but  drapery  of  white  muslin  restrained  the  currents 
of  air,  and  during  the  day  would  let  in  sufficient  light,  while  a 
blazing  wood-fire  both  wanned  and  lighted  the  room  by  night. 
A  rifle  and  powder-horn  hung  near  the  fire-place,  and  the 
master  of  the  house,  a  fine,  hearty,  companionable  fellow,  said 
that  he  had  lately  shot  three  deer,  and  that  there  were  plenty 
of  cats,  and  foxes,  as  well  as  turkeys,  hares,  squirrels,  and 
other  small  game  in  the  vicinity.  It  was  a  perfectly  charm- 
ing little  backwoods  farm-house — good  wife,  supper,  and  all ; 
but  one  disagreeable  blot  darkened  the  otherwise  most  agree- 
able picture  of  rustic  civilization — we  were  waited  upon  at 
table  by  two  excessively  dirty,  slovenly-dressed,  negro  girls. 
In  the  rear  of  the  cabin  were  two  hovels,  each  lighted  by  large 
fires,  and  apparently  crowded  with  other  slaves  belonging  to 
the  family. 

Between  nine  and  ten  at  night,  we  reached  the  end  of  the 
completed  railroad,  coming  up  in  search  for  that  we  had  left 


214  COTTON   AND    SLAVEKY. 

the  previous  night.  There  was  another  camp  and  fire  of  the 
workmen,  and  in  a  little  white  frame-house  we  found  a  com- 
pany of  engineers.  There  were  two  trains  and  locomotives  on 
the  track,  and  a  gang  of  negroes  was  loading  cotton  into  one 
of  them. 

I  strolled  off  until  I  reached  an  opening  in  the  woods,  in 
which  was  a  cotton-field  and  some  negro-cabins,  and  beyond 
it  large  girdled  trees,  among  which  were  two  negroes  with 
dogs,  harking,  yelping,  hacking,  shouting,  and  whistling, 
after  'coons  and  'possums.  Returning  to  the  railroad,  I 
found  a  comfortable,  warm  passenger-car,  and,  wrapped  in 
my  blanket,  went  to  sleep.  At  midnight  I  was  awakened  by 
loud  laughter,  and,  looking  out,  saw  that  the  gang  of  negroes 
had  made  a  fire,  and  .were  enjoying  a  right  merry  repast. 
Suddenly,  one  raised  such  a  sound  as  I  never  heard  before ;  a 
long,  loud,  musical  shout,  rising  and  falling,  and  breaking 
into  falsetto,  his  voice  ringing  through  the  woods  in  the  clear, 
frosty  night  air,  like  a  bugle-call.  As  he  finished,  the  melody 
was  caught  up  by  another,  and  then  another,  and  then  by 
several  in  chorus.  When  there  was  silence  again,  one  of 
them  cried  out,  as  if  bursting  with  amusement :  "  Did  yer 
see  de  dog  ? — when  I  began  eeohing,  he  turn  roun'  an'  look 
me  straight  into  der  face  ;  ha  !  ha  !  ha ! "  and  the  whole  party 
broke  into  the  loudest  peals  of  laughter,  as  if  it  was  the  very 
best  joke  they  had  ever  heard. 

After  a  few  minutes  I  could  hear  one  urging  the  rest  to 
come  to  work  again,  and  soon  he  stepped  towards  the  cotton 
bales,  saying,  "Come,  brederen,  come;  let's  go  at  it;  come 
now,  eoho  !  roll  away !  eeoho-eeoho-weeioho-i !" — and  the  rest 
taking  it  up  as  before,  in  a  few  moments  they  all  had  their 
shoulders  to  a  bale  of  cotton,  and  were  rolling  it  up  the  em- 
bankment. 

About  half-past  three,  I  was  awakened  again  by  the  whistle 


SOUTH    CAROLINA.  215 

of  the  locomotive,  answering,  I  suppose,  the  horn  of  a  stage- 
coach, which  in  a  few  minutes  drove  up,  bringing  a  mail.  A 
negro  man  and  woman  who  had  been  sleeping  near  me, 
replenished  the  fire ;  two  other  passengers  came  in,  and  we 
stalled. 

In  the  woods  I  saw  a  negro  by  a  fire,  while  it  was  still 
night,  shaving  shingles  very  industriously.  He  did  not  even 
stop  to  look  at  the  train.  No  doubt  he  was  a  slave,  working 
by  task,  and  of  his  own  accord  at  night,  that  he  might  have 
the  more  daylight  for  his  own  purposes. 

The  negroes  enjoy  fine  blazing  fires  in  the  open  air,  and 
make  them  at  every  opportunity.  The  train  on  this  road  was 
provided  with  a  man  and  maid-servant  to  attend  to  the  fire 
and  wait  on  the  passengers — a  very  good  arrangement,  by  the 
way,  yet  to  be  adopted  on  our  own  long  passenger  trains. 
When  we  arrived  at  a  junction  where  we  were  to  change  cars, 
as  soon  as  all  the  passengers  had  left  the  train,  they  also  left ; 
but  instead  of  going  into  the  station-house  with  us,  they  im- 
mediately collected  some  pine  branches  and  chips,  and  getting 
a  brand  from  the  locomotive,  made  a  fire  upon  the  ground, 
and  seated  themselves  by  it.  Other  negroes  soon  began  to 
join  them,  and  as  they  approached  were  called  to  :  "  Doan'  yer 
cum  widout  som'  wood,!  Doan'  yer  cum  widout  som'  wood  !" 
and  every  one  had  to  make  his  contribution.  At  another 
place,  near  a  cotton  plantation,  I  found  a  woman  collecting 
pine  leaves  into  heaps,  to  be  carted  to  the  cattle-pens.  She, 
too,  had  a  fire  near  her.  "  What  are  you  doing  with  a  fire, 
aunty  ?"  "  Oh,  jus'  to  warm  my  hans  wen  dey  gits  cold, 
inassa."  The  weather  was  then  almost  uncomfortably  warm 

We  were  running  during  the  forenoon,  for  a  hundred  miles, 
or  more,  in  a  southerly  direction,  on  nearly  a  straight  course, 
through  about  the  middle  of  the  State  of  South  Carolina. 
The  greater  part  of  this  distance,  the  flat,  sandy  pine  barrens 


216  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

continued,  scarcely  a  foot  of  grading,  for  many  miles  at  a  time, 
having  been  required  in  the  construction  of  the  railroad.  As 
the  swamps,  which  were  still  frequent,  were  crossed  on 'piles 
and  tressel-work,  the  roads  must  have  been  built  very  cheaply 
— the  land  damages  being  nothing.  "We  passed  from  the 
track  of  one  company  to  that  of  another,  several  times  during 
the  day — the  speed  was  from  fifteen  to  twenty  miles  an  hour, 
with  long  stoppages  at  the  stations.  A  conductor  said  they 
could  easily  run  forty  miles,  and  had  done  it,  including  stop- 
pages ;  but  they  were  forbidden  now  to  make  fast  time,  from 
the  injury  it  did  the  road — the  superstructure  being  much 
more  shaken  and  liable  to  displacement  in  these  light  sands 
than  on  our  Northern  roads.  The  locomotives  that  I  saw 
were  all  made  in  Philadelphia ;  the  cars  were  all  from  the 
Hartford,  Conn.,  and  Worcester,  Mass.,  manufactories,  and 
invariably,  elegant  and  comfortable.  The  roads  seemed  to 
be  doing  a  heavy  freighting  business  with  cotton.  We  passed 
at  the  turn-outs  half  a  dozen  trains,  with  nearly  a  thousand 
bales  on  each,  but  the  number  of  passengers  was  always  small. 
A  slave  country  can  never,  it  is  evident,  furnish  a  passenger 
traffic  of  much  value.  A  majority  of  the  passenger  trains, 
which  I  saw  used  in  the  South,  were  not  paying  for  the  fuel 
and  wages  expended  in  running  them. 

For  an  hour  or  two  we  got  above  the  sandy  zone,  and  into 
the  second,  middle,  or  "  wave "  region  of  the  State.  The 
surface  here  was  extremely  undulating,  gracefully  swelling  and 
dipping  in  bluffs  and  dells — the  soil  a  mellow  brown  loam, 
with  some  indications  of  fertility,  especially  in  the  valleys. 
Yet  most  of  the  ground  was  occupied  by  pine  woods  (pro- 
bably old-field  pines,  on  exhausted  cotton-fields).  For  a  few 
miles,  on  a  gently  sloping  surface  of  the  same  sort  of  soil, 
there  were  some  enormously  large  cotton-fields. 

I  saw  women  working  again,  in  large  gangs  with  men.    In 


SOUTH   CAROLINA.       0  217 

one  case  they  were  distributing  manure — ditch  scrapings  it 
appeared  to  be — and  the  mode  of  operation  was  this :  the 
manure  had  been  already  carted  into  heaps  upon  the  ground  ; 
a  number  of  the  women  were  carrying  it  in  from  the  heap  in 
baskets,  on  their  heads,  and  one  in  her  apron,  and  spreading 
it  with  their  hands  between  the  ridges  on  which  the  cotton 
grew  last  year ;  the  rest  followed  with  great,  long-handled, 
heavy,  clumsy  hoes,  and  pulled  down  the  ridges  over  the 
manure,  and  so  made  new  ridges  for  the  next  planting.  I 
asked  a  young  planter  who  continued  with  me  a  good  part  of 
the  day,  why  they  did  not  use  ploughs.  He  said  this  was 
rather  rough  land,  and  a  plough  wouldn't  work  in  it  very 
well.  It  was  light  soil,  and  smooth  enough  for  a  parade 
ground.  The  fact  is,  in  certain  parts  of  South  Carolina,  a 
plough  is  yet  an  almost  unknown  instrument  of  tillage. 

About  noon  we  turned  east,  on  a  track  running  direct  to 
Charleston.  Pine  barrens  continued  alternating  with  swamp, 
with  some  cotton  and  corn  fields  on  the  edges  of  the  latter. 
A  few  of  the  pines  were  "boxed "  for  turpentine ;  and  I  un- 
derstood that  one  or  two  companies  from  North  Carolina  had 
been  operating  here  for  several  years.  Plantations  were  not 
very  often  seen  along  the  road  through  the  sand ;  but  stations, 
at  which  cotton  was  stored  and  loading,  were  comparatively 
frequent. 

At  one  of  the  stations  an  empty  car  had  been  attached  to 
the  train  ;  I  had  gone  into  it,  and  was  standing  at  one  end  of 
it,  when  an  elderly  countryman  with  a  young  woman  and 
three  little  children  entered  and  took  seats  at  the  other.  The 
old  man  took  out  a  roll  of  deerskin,  in  which  were  bank-bills, 
and  some  small  change. 

"  How  much  did  he  say  'twould  be  ?"  he  inquired. 

"  Seventy  cents." 

"  For  both  on  us  ?" 


218  •COTTON  AND  SLAVERY. 

"  For  each  on  us." 

"Both  on  us,  I  reckon." 

"  Beckon  it's  each." 

"  I've  got  jess  seventy-five  cents  in  hard  money." 

"  Give  it  to  him,  and  tell  him  it's  all  yer  got ;  reckon  he'll 
let  us  go." 

At  this  I  moved,  to  attract  their  attention ;  the  old  man 
started,  and  looked  towards  me  for  a  moment,  and  said  no 
more.  I  soon  afterwards  walked  out  on  the  platform,  passing 
him,  and  the  conductor  came  in,  and  collected  their  fare ;  I 
then  returned,  and  stood  near  them,  looking  out  of  the 
window  of  the  door.  The  old  man  had  a  good-humoured, 
thin,  withered,  very  brown  face,  and  there  was  a  speaking 
twinkle  in  his  eye.  He  was  dressed  in  clothes  much  of  the 
Quaker  cut — a  broad-brimmed,  low  hat ;  white  cotton  shirt, 
open  in  front,  and  without  cravat,  showing  his  hairy  breast ; 
a  long-skirted,  snuff-coloured  coat,  of  very  coarse  homespun ; 
short  trousers,  of  brown  drilling ;  red  woollen  stockings,  and 
heavy  cow-hide  shoes.  He  presently  asked  the  time  of 
day  ;  I  gave  it  to  him,  and  we  continued  in  conversation,  as 
follows : — 

"  Eight  cold  weather." 

"  Yes." 

"  G'wine  to  Branchville  ?" 

"  I  am  going  beyond  there — to  Charleston." 

"Ah — come  from  Hamburg  this  mornin'?" 

"  No — from  beyond  there." 

"  Did  ye  ? — where  'd  you  come  from  ?" 

"  From  Wilmington." 

"  How  long  yer  ben  comin'  ?" 

"  I  left  Wilmington  night  before  last,  about  ten  o'clock. 
I  have  been  ever  since  on  the  road." 

"Reckon  yer  a  night-bird." 


SOUTH   CAROLINA.  219 

"  What  ?" 

"  Beckon  you  are  a  night-bird — what  we  calls  a  night-hawk  ; 
keeps  a  goin'  at  night,  you  know." 

"  Yes — I've  been  going  most  of  two  nights." 

"  Beckon  so ;  kinder  red  your  eyes  is.  Live  in  Charleston, 
do  ye  ?" 

"  No,  I  live  in  New  York." 

"  New  York — that's  a  good  ways,  yet,  ain't  it  ?" 


"Beckon  yer  arter  a  chicken,  up  here." 

"  No." 

"  Ah,  ha — reckon  ye  are." 

The  young  woman  laughed,  lifted  her  shoulder,  and  looked 
out  of  the  window. 

"  Beckon  ye'll  get  somebody's  chicken." 

"I'm  afraid  not." 

The  young  woman  laughed  again,  and  tossed  her  head. 

"  Oh,  reckon  ye  will — ah,  ha  !     But  yer  mustn't  mind  my 
fun." 

"  Not  at  all,  not  at  all.     Where  did  you  come  from  ?" 

"  Up  here  to ;    g'wine  hum  ;    g'wine  to  stop  down 

here,    next    deeper.      How  do   you  go,   w'en   you  get  to 
Charleston  ?" 

"  I  am  going  on  to  New  Orleans." 

"  Is  New  York  beyond  New  Orleans  ?" 

"  Beyond  New  Orleans  ?     Oh,  no." 

"  In  New  Orleans,  is't  ? 

"What?" 

"  New  York  is  somewhere  in  New  Orleans,  ain't  it  ?" 

"  No ;  it's  the  other  way — beyond  Wilmington." 
"  Oh  !     Been  pretty  cold  thar  ?" 

"  Yes ;    there  was  a  foot  and  a  half  of  snow  there,  last 
week,  I  hear." 


COTTON    AND   SLAVERY. 

"  Lord  o'massy  !  why  !  have  to  feed  all  the  cattle  ! — whew ! 
— ha  ! — whew  !  don't  wonner  ye  com'  away." 

"  You  are  a  farmer." 

"  Yes." 

"  Well,  I  am  a  farmer,  too." 

"  Be  ye— to  New  York  ?" 

"  Yes ;  how  much  land  have  you  got  ?" 

"  A  hundred  and  twenty-five  acres ;  how  much  have  you  ?" 

"  Just  ahout  the  same.     What's  your  land  worth,  here  ?" 

"Some  on't — what  we  call  swamp-land — knder  low  and 
wet  like,  you  know — that's  worth  five  dollars  an  acre ;  and 
mainly  it's  worth  a  dollar  and  a  half  or  two  dollars — that's 
takin'  a  common  trac'  of  upland.  What's  yours  worth  ?" 

"A  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  dollars." 

"What!" 

"  A  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred." 

"Dollars?" 

"  Yes." 

"  Not  an  acre  ?" 

"Yes." 

"  Good  Lord !  yer  might  as  well  buy  niggers  to  onst.  Do 
you  work  any  niggers  ?" 

"No." 

"  May  be  they  don't  have  niggers — that  is,  slaves — to  New 
York." 

"  No,  we  do  not.     It's  against  the  law." 

"Yes,  I  heerd  'twas,  some  place.  How  do  yer  get  yer 
work  done  ?" 

"  I  hire  white  men — Irishmen  generally." 

"  Do  they  work  good  ?" 

"  Yes,  better  than  negroes,  I  think,  and  don't  cost  nearly 
as  much." 

"  What  do  yer  have  to  give  'em  ?" 


SOUTH    CAROLINA.  221 

"  Eight  or  nine  dollars  a  month,  and  board,  for  common 
hands,  by  the  year." 

"  Hi,  Lordy !  and  they  work  up  right  smart,  do  they  ? 
Why,  yer  can't  get  any  kind  of  a  good  nigger  less'n  twelve 
dollars  a  month." 

"  And  board  ?" 

"  And  board  'em  ?  yes  ;  aad  clothe,  and  blank,  and  shoe 
'em,  too." 

He  owned  no  negroes  himself  and  did  not  hire  any. 
"  They,"  his  family,  "  made  their  own  crap."  They  raised 
maize,  and  sweet  potatoes,  and  cow-peas.  He  reckoned,  in 
general,  they  made  about  three  barrels  of  maize  to  the  acre ; 
sometimes,  as  much  as  five.  He  described  to  me,  as  a  novelty, 
a  plough,  with  "  a  sort  of  a  wing,  like,  on  one  side,"  that 
pushed  off,  and  turned  over  a  slice  of  the  ground ;  from 
which  it  appeared  that  he  had,  until  recently,  never  seen  a 
mould-board  ;  the  common  ploughs  of  this  country  being  con- 
structed on  the  same  principles  as  those  of  the  Chinese,  and 
only  rooting  the  ground,  like  a  hog  or  a  mole — not  cleaving 
and  turning.  He  had  never  heard  of  working  a  plough  with 
more  than  one  horse.  He  was  frank  and  good-natured  ;  em- 
barrassed his  daughter  by  coarse  jokes  about  herself  and  her 
babies,  and  asked  me  if  I  would  not  go  home  with  him,  and, 
when  I  declined,  pressed  me  to  come  and  see  them  when  I 
returned.  That  I  might  do  so,  he  gave  me  directions  how  to 
get  to  his  farm ;  observing  that  I  must  start  pretty  early  in 
the  day — because  it  would  not  be  safe  for  a  stranger  to  try  to 
cross  the  swamp  after  dark.  The  moment  the  train  began  to 
check  its  speed,  before  stopping  at  the  place  at  which  he  was 
to  leave,  he  said  to  his  daughter,  "  Come,  gal !  quick  now ; 
gather  up  yer  young  ones  !"  and  stepped  out,  pulling  her  after 
him,  on  to  the  platform.  As  they  walked  off,  I  noticed  that 
he  strode  ahead,  like  an  Indian  or  a  gipsy  man,  and  she  car- 


222  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

ried  in  her  arms  two  of  the  children  and  a  bundle,  while  the 
third  child  held  to  her  skirts. 

A  party  of  fashionably-dressed  people  took  the  train  for 
Charleston — two  families,  apparently,  returning  from  a  visit 
to  their  plantations.  They  came  to  the  station  in  handsome 
coaches.  Some  minutes  before  the  rest,  there  entered  the  car, 
in  which  I  was  then  again  alone,  and  reclining  on  a  bench  in 
the  corner,  an  old  nurse,  with  a  baby,  and  two  young  negro 
women,  having  care  of  half  a  dozen  children,  mostly  girls, 
from  three  to  fifteen  years  of  age.  As  they  closed  the  door, 
the  negro  girls  seemed  to  resume  a  conversation,  or  quarrel. 
Their  language  was  loud  and  obscene,  such  as  I  never  heard 
before  from  any  but  the  most  depraved  and  beastly  women  of 
the  streets.  Upon  observing  me,  they  dropped  their  voices, 
but  not  with  any  appearance  of  shame,  and  continued  their 
altercation,  until  their  mistresses  entered.  The  white  chil- 
dren, in  the  mean  time,  had  listened,  without  any  appearance 
of  wonder  or  annoyance.  The  moment  the  ladies  opened  the 
door,  they  became  silent.* 

*  From  the  Southern  Cultivator,  June,  1855. — "  Children  are  fond  of  the 
company  of  negroes,  not  only  because  the  deference  shown  them  makes  them  feel 
perfectly  at  ease,  but  the  subjects  of  conversation  are  on  a  level  with  their  capacity  ; 
while  the  simple  tales,  and  the  witch  and  ghost  stories,  so  common  among  negroes, 
excite  the  young  imagination  and  enlist  the  feelings.  If,  in  this  association,  the 
child  becomes  familiar  with  indelicate,  vulgar,  and  lascivious  manners  and  con- 
versation, an  impression  is  made  upon  the  mind  and  heart,  which  lasts  for  years — 
perhaps  for  life.  Could  we,  in  all  cases,  trace  effects  to  their  real  causes,  I  doubt 
not  but  many  young  men  and  women,  of  respectable  parentage  and  bright  prospects, 
who  have  made  shipwreck  of  all  their  earthly  hopes,  have  been  led  to  the  fatal 
step  by  the  seeds  of  corruption  which,  in  the  days  of  childhood  and  youth,  were 
sown  in  their  hearts  by  the  indelicate  and  lascivious  manners  and  conversation  of 
their  father's  negroes." 

From  an  Address  of  Chancellor  Harper,  prepared  for  and  read  before  the 
Society  for  the  Advancement  of  Learning,  of  South  Carolina. — "I  have  said  the 
tendency  of  our  institution  is  to  elevate  the  female  character,  as  well  as  that  of  the 
other  sex,  for  similar  reasons. 

"  And,  permit  me  to  say,  that  this  elevation  of  the  female  character  is  no  less 


• 

SOUTH   CAKOLINA.  223 

important  and  essential  to  us,  than  the  moral  and  intellectual  cultivation  of  the 
other  sex.  It  would,  indeed,  be  intolerable,  if,  when  one  class  of  society  is  neces- 
sarily degraded  in  this  respect,  no  compensation  were  made  by  the  superior  eleva- 
tion and  purity  of  the  other.  Not  only  essential  purity  of  conduct,  but  the 
utmost  purity  of  manners.  And,  1  will  add,  though  it  may  incur  the  formidable 
charge  of  affectation  or  prudery,  a  greater  severity  of  decorum  than  is  required 
elsewhere,  is  necessary  among  us.  Always  should  be  strenuously  resisted  the  at- 
tempts, which  have  sometimes  been  made,  to  introduce  among  us  the  freedom  of 
foreign  European,  and,  especially,  of  continental  manners.  Let  us  say  :  we  will 
not  have  the  manners  of  South  Carolina  changed."  _ 


224  COTTON    AND   SLAVERY. 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

SOUTH  CAEOLINA  AND  GEORGIA,  SURVEYED. 

Savannah. — While  riding,  aimlessly,  in  the  suburbs,  I  came 
upon  a  square  field,  in  the  midst  of  an  open  pine-wood,  par- 
tially inclosed  with  a  dilapidated  wooden  paling.  It  proved 
to  be  a  grave-yard  for  negroes.  Dismounting,  and  fastening 
my  horse  to  a  gate-post,  I  walked  in,  and  found  much  in  the 
monuments  to  interest  me.  Some  of  these  were  mere  billets 
of  wood,  others  were  of  brick  and  marble,  and  some  were 
pieces  of  plank,  cut  in  the  ordinary  form  of  tomb-stones. 
Many  family-lots  were  inclosed  with  railings,  and  a  few 
flowers  or  evergreen  shrubs  had  sometimes  been  planted  on 
the  graves ;  but  these  were  generally  broken  down  and  with- 
ered, and  the  ground  was  overgrown  with  weeds  and  briars. 
I  spent  some  time  in  examining  the  inscriptions,  the  greater 
number  of  which  were  evidently  painted  by  self-taught  negroes, 
and  were  curiously  illustrative  both  of  their  condition  and 
character.  I  transcribed  a  few  of  them,  as  literally  as  pos- 
r-ible,  as  follow : 

" SACRED 

TO    THE    MEMORY 

OF  HENRY.  Gleve,  ho 

Dide  JANUARY  19  1849 

Age  44." 


SOUTH   CAROLINA   AND   GEORGIA.  225 

" BALDWING 

In  men  of  CHABLES 

who  dit-d  NOV 

20.  THE  1846 

aged  62  years  Blessed  are  the 

dead  who  dieth 

in  the  LORD 

Even  so  said 

the  SPerit.    For 

the  Rest  From 

Thair  " 

[The  remainder  rotted  off.] 


"  DEAR 

WIFE   OF 

JAMES    PELBUG 

BORN    1814    DIED    1852.  ' 


In  Memr 

y.of, 

Ma 

gare 

4.  Bon 

August 

29  and 

died  oc 

tober  29  1852 

[The  following  on  marble.] 

"  To  record  the  worth  fidelity  and  virtue  of  Reynolda  Watts,  (who  died  on 
the  2d  day  of  May  1829  at  the  age  of  24  years,  in  giving  birth  to  her  3d 
child). 

"  Reared  from  infancy  by  an  affectionate  mistress  and  trained  by  her  in 
the  paths  of  virtue,  She  was  strictly  moral  in  her  deportment,  faithful  and 
devoted  in  her  duty  and  heart  and  soul  a 

[  Sand  drifted  over  the  remainder.] 

There  were  a  few  others,  of  similar  character  to  the  above, 
erected  by  whites  to  the  memory  of  favourite  servants.  The 
following  was  on  a  large  brick  tomb : — 

"This  tablet  is  erected  to  record  the  demise  of  Rev.  HENRY 
CUNNINGHAM,  Founder  and  subsequent  pastor  of  the  2d  African 
Church  for  39  years,  who  yielded  his  spirit  to  its  master  the  29  of  March 
1842,  aged  83  years." 

VOL.  L  Q 


226  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

[Followed  by  an  inscription  to  the  memory  of  Mrs.  Cun- 
nmgham.] 

"This  vault  is  erected  by  the  2d  African  Church,  as  a  token  of 
respect." 

The  following  is  upon  a  large  stone  table.  The  reader  will 
observe  its  date  ;  but  I  must  add  that,  while  in  North  Caro- 
lina, I  heard  of  two  recent  occasions,  in  which  public  religious 
services  had  been  interrupted,  and  the  preachers — very  esti- 
mable coloured  men — publicly  whipped. 

"  Sacred  to  the  memory  of  Andrew  Brian  pastor  of  1st  colored  Baptist 
church  in  Savannah.  God  was  Pleased  to  lay  his  honour  near  his  heart 
and  impress  the  worth  and  weight  of  souls  upon  his  mind  that  he  was  con- 
strained to  Preach  the  Gospel  to  dieng  world,  particularly  to  the  sable 
sons  of  africa.  though  he  labored  under  many  disadvantage  yet  thought 
in  the  school  of  Christ,  he  was  able  to  bring  out  new  and  old  out  of  the 
treasury  And  he  has  done  more  good  among  the  poor  slaves  than  all  the 
learned  Doctors  in  America,  He  wus  im  prisoned  for  the  Gospel  without 
any  ceremony  was  severely  whipped.  But  while  under  the  lash  he  told 
his  prosecutor  he  rejoiced  not  only  to  be  whipped  but  he  was  willing  for 
to  suffer  death  for  the  cause  of  CHRIST. 

"He  continued  preaching  the  Gospel  until  Oct.  6  1812.  He  was 
supposed  to  be  96  years  of  age,  his  remains  were  interd  with  peculiar 
respect  an  address  was  delivered  by  the  Rev.  Mr  Johnston  Dr.  Kolluck 
Thomas  Williams  and  Henry  Cunningham  He  was  an  honour  to  human 
nature  an  ornament  to  religion  and  a  friend  to  mankind.  His  memory  is 
still  precious  in  the  (hearts)  of  the  living. 

"  Afflicted  long  he  bore  the  rod 
With  calm  submission  to  his  maker  God. 
His  mind  was  tranquil  and  serene 
No  terrors  in  his  looks  was  seen 
A  SAVIOURS   smile  dispelled  the  gloom 
And  smoothed  the  passage  to  the  tomb, 

"  I  heard  a  voice  from  Heaven  saying  unto  me,  Write,  Blessed  are  the 
dead  which  die  in  the  Lord  from  henceforth  1  Yea  saith  the  Spirit  that 
they  may  rest  from  the  labours. 

"  This  stone  is  erected  by  the  First  Colored  Church  as  a  token  of  love 
for  their  most  faithful  pastor.  A.  D.  1821." 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  GEOKGIA.  227 

— Plantation,  February  — .  I  left  town  yesterday  morning, 
on  horseback,  with  a  letter  in  my  pocket  to  Mr.  X.,  under  whose 
roof  I  am  now  writing.  The  weather  was  fine,  and,  indeed, 
since  I  left  Virginia,  the  weather  for  out-of-door  purposes 
has  been  as  fine  as  can  be  imagined.  The  exercise  of  walk- 
ing or  of  riding  warms  one,  at  any  time  between  sunrise  and 
sunset,  sufficiently  to  allow  an  overcoat  to  be  dispensed  with, 
while  the  air  is  yet  brisk  and  stimulating.  The  public- 
houses  are  overcrowded  with  Northerners,  who  congratulate 
themselves  on  having  escaped  from  the  severe  cold,  of  which 
they  hear  from  home. 

All,  however,  who  know  the  country,  out  of  the  large 
towns,  say  that  they  have  suffered  more  from  cold  here  than 
ever  at  the  North  ;  because,  except  at  a  few  first-class  hotels, 
and  in  the  better  sort  of  mansions  and  plantation  residences, 
any  provision  for  keeping  houses  warm  is  so  entirely  neglected. 
It  is,  indeed,  too  cool  to  sit  quietly,  even  at  midday,  out  of 
sunshine,  and  at  night  it  is  often  frosty.  As  a  general  rule, 
with  such  exceptions  as  I  have  indicated,  it  will  be  full  two 
hours  after  one  has  asked  for  a  fire  in  his  room  before  the 
servants  can  be  got  to  make  it.  The  expedient  of  closing  a 
door  or  window  to  exclude  a  draught  of  cold  air  seems  really 
to  be  unknown  to  the  negroes.  From  the  time  I  left  Rich- 
mond, until  I  arrived  at  Charleston,  I  never  but  once  knew  a 
servant  to  close  the  door  on  leaving  a  room,  unless  he  was 
requested  at  the  moment  to  do  so. 

The  public  houses  of  the  smaller  towns,  and  the  country 
houses  generally,  are  so  loosely  built,  and  so  rarely  have  un- 
broken glass  windows,  that  to  sit  by  a  fire,  and  to  avoid  re- 
maining in  a  draught  at  the  same  time,  is  not  to  be  expected. 

As  the  number  of  Northerners,  and  especially  of  invalids, 
who  come  hither  in  winter,  is  every  year  increasing,  more  com- 
fortable accommodations  alon^  the  line  of  travel  must  soon  be 

«J  2 


228  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

provided ;  if  not  by  native,  then  by  Northern  enterprise. 
Some  of  the  hotels  in  Florida,  indeed,  are  already,  I  under- 
stand, under  the  management  of  Northerners ;  and  this 
winter,  cooks  and  waiters  have  been  procured  for  them  from 
the  North.  I  observe,  also,  that  one  of  them  advertises  that 
'meats  and  vegetables  are  received  by  every  steamer  from  New 
York. 

Whenever  comfortable  quarters,  and  means  of  conveyance 
are  extensively  provided,  at  not  immoderately  great  expense, 
there  must  be  a  great  migration  here  every  winter.  The 
climate  and  the  scenery,  as  well  as  the  society  of  the  more 
wealthy  planters'  families,  are  attractive,  not  to  invalids  alone, 
but  even  more  to  men  and  women  who  are  able  to  enjoy  in- 
vigorating recreations.  Nowhere  in  the  world  could  a  man, 
with  a  sound  body  and  a  quiet  conscience,  live  more  plea- 
santly, at  least  as  a  guest,  it  seems  to  me,  than  here  where  I 
am.  I  was  awakened  this  morning  by  a  servant  making  a 
fire  in  my  chamber.  Opening  the  window,  I  found  a  clear, 
brisk  air,  but  without  frost — the  mercury  standing  at  35°  F. 
There  was  not  a  sign  of  winter,  except  that  a  few  cypress  trees, 
hung  with  seed  attached  to  pretty  pendulous  tassels,  were  leaf- 
less. A  grove  which  surrounded  the  house  was  all  in  dark  ver- 
dure ;  there  were  green  oranges  on  trees  nearer  the  window  ; 
the  buds  were  swelling  on  a  jessamine-vine,  and  a  number  of 
camelia-japonicas  were  in  full  bloom ;  one  of  them,  at  least 
seven  feet  high,  and  a  large  compact  shrub,  must  have  had 
several  hundred  blossoms  on  it.  Sparrows  were  chirping, 
doves  cooing,  and  a  mocking-bird  whistling  loudly.  I  walked 
to  the  stable,  and  saw  clean  and  neatly-dressed  negroes  groom- 
ing thorough-bred  horses,  which  pawed  the  ground,  and  tossed 
their  heads,  and  drew  deep  inspirations,  and  danced  as  they 
were  led  out,  in  exuberance  of  animal  spirits ;  and  I  felt  as  they 
did.  We  drove  ten  miles  to  church,  in  the  forenoon,  with  the 


SOUTH    CAROLINA   AND   GEORGIA.  229 

carriage-top  thrown  back,  and  with  our  overcoats  laid  aside ; 
nevertheless,  when  we  returned,  and  came  into  the  house,  we 
found  a  crackling  wood  fire,  as  comfortable  as  it  was  cheerful. 
Two  lads,  the  sons  of  my  host,  had  returned  the  night  before 
from  a  "  marooning  party,"  with  a  boat-load  of  venison,  wild 
fowl,  and  fish ;  and  at  dinner  this  evening  there  were  delicacies 
which  are  to  be  had  in  perfection,  it  is  said,  nowhere  else  than 
on  this  coast.  The  woods  and  waters  around  us  abound,  not 
only  with  game,  but  with  most  interesting  subjects  of  obser- 
vation to  the  naturalist  and  the  artist.  Everything  encourages 
cheerfulness,  and  invites  to  healthful  life. 

Now  to  think  how  people  are  baking  in  their  oven-houses 
at  home,  or  waddling  out  in  the  deep  snow  or  mud,  or  across 
the  frozen  ruts,  wrapped  up  to  a  Falstaffian  rotundity  in 
flannels  and  furs,  one  can  but  wonder  that  those,  who  have 
means,  stay  there,  any  more  than  these  stay  here  in  summer  ; 
and  that  my  host  would  no  more  think  of  doing  than  the 
wild-goose. 

But  I  must  tell  how  I  got  here,  and  what  I  saw  by  the  way. 

A  narrow  belt  of  cleared  land — "vacant  lots"  —  only 
separated  the  town  from  the  pine-forest — that  great  broad 
forest  which  extends  uninterruptedly,  and  merely  dotted 
with  a  few  small  corn  and  cotton  fields,  from  Delaware  to 
Louisiana. 

Having  some  doubt  about  the  road,  I  asked  a  direction  of  a 
man  on  horseback,  who  overtook  and  was  passing  me.  In 
reply,  he  said  it  was  a  straight  road,  and  we  should  go  in 
company  for  a  mile  or  two.  He  inquired  if  I  was  a  stranger  ; 
and,  when  he  heard  that  I  was  from  the  North,  and  now  first 
visiting  the  South,  he  remarked  that  there  was  "  no  better 
place  for  me  to  go  to  than  that  for  which  I  had  inquired. 
Mr.  X.  was  a  very  fine  man — rich,  got  a  splendid  plantation, 
lived  well,  had  plenty  of  company  always,  and  there  were  a 


230  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

number  of  other  show  plantations  near  his.  He  reckoaed  I 
would  visit  some  of  them." 

I  asked  what  he  meant  by  "  show  plantations."  "  Planta- 
tions belonging  to  rich  people,"  he  said,  "where  they  had 
everything  fixed  up  nice.  There  were  several  places  that  had 
that  name ;  their  owners  always  went  out  and  lived  on  them 
part  of  the  year,  and  kept  a  kind  of  open  house,  and  were 
always  ready  to  receive  company.  He  reckoned  I  might  go 

and  stay  a  month  round  on  them  kind  of  places  on 

river,  and  it  would  not  cost  me  a  cent.  They  always  had  a 
great  many  Northerners  going  to  see  them,  those  gentlemen 
had.  Almost  every  Northerner  that  came  here  was  invited 
right  out  to  visit  some  of  them ;  and,  in  summer,  a  good  many 
of  them  went  to  the  North  themselves." 

(It  was  not  till  long  afterwards,  long  after  the  above  para- 
graph was  first  printed,  that  I  fully  comprehended  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  statement,  that  on  the  show  plantations  it  would 
not  cost  me  a  cent.) 

During  the  forenoon  my  road  continued  broad  and  straight, 
and  I  was  told  that  it  was  the  chief  outlet  and  thoroughfare 
of  a  very  extensive  agricultural  district.  There  was  very 
little  land  in  cultivation  within  sight  of  the  road,  however ; 
not  a  mile  of  it  fenced,  in  twenty,  and  the  only  houses  were 
log- cabins.  The  soil  varied  from  a  coarse,  clean,  yellow  sand, 
to  a  dark,  brown,  sandy  loam.  There  were  indications  that 
much  of  the  land  had,  at  some  time,  been  under  cultivation — 
had  been  worn  out,  and  deserted. 

Long  teams  of  mules,  driven  by  negroes,  toiled  slowly 
towards  the  town,  with  loads  of  rice  or  cotton.  A  stage- 
coach, with  six  horses  to  drag  it  through  the  heavy  road, 
covered  me,  as  it  passed,  with  dust ;  and  once  or  twice,  I  met 
a  stylish  carriage  with  fashionably-clad  gentlemen  and  ladies 
and  primly-liveried  negro-servants;  but  much  the  greates./ 


SOUTH   CAROLINA  AND    GEORlHA.  231 

traffic  of  the  road  was  done  by  small  one-horse  carts,  driven  by 
white  men,  or  women. 

These  carts,  all  but  their  wheels,  which  come  from  the 
North,  look  as  if  they  were  made  by  their  owners,  in  the 
woods,  with  no  better  tools  than  axes  and  jack-knives.  Very 
little  iron  is  used  in  their  construction ;  the  different  parts 
being  held  together  by  wooden  pins,  and  lashings  of  hide. 
The  harness  is  made  chiefly  of  ropes  and  undressed  hide ; 
but  there  is  always  a  high-peaked  riding-saddle,  in  which  the 
driver  prefers  to  sit,  rather  than  on  his  cart.  Once,  I  met  a 
woman  riding  in  this  way,  with  a  load  of  children  in  the  cart 
behind  her.  From  the  axle-tree  often  hung  a  gourd,  or  an 
iron  kettle.  One  man  carried  a  rifle  on  his  pommel.  Some- 
times, these  carts  would  contain  a  single  bale  of  cotton,  more 
commonly,  an  assorted  cargo  of  maize,  sweet  potatoes,  poultry, 
game,  hides,  and  peltry,  with,  always,  some  bundles  of  corn- 
leaves,  to  be  fed  to  the  horse.  Women  and  children  were 
often  passengers,  or  travelled  on  foot,  in  company  with  the 
carts,  which  were  usually  furnished  with  a  low  tilt.  Many  of 
them,  I  found,  had  been  two  or  three  days  on  the^foad, 
bringing  down  a  little  crop  to  market ;  whole  families  coming 
with  it,  to  get  reclothed  with  the  proceeds. 

The  men  with  the  carts  were  generally  slight,  with  high 
cheek-bones  and  sunken  eyes,  and  were  of  less  than  the  usual 
stature  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  They  were  dressed  in 
long-skirted  homespun  coats,  wore  slouched  hats,  and  heavy 
boots,  outside  their  trousers.  As  they  met  me,  they  usually 
bowed,  and  often  offered  a  remark  upon  the  weather,  or  the 
roads,  in  a  bold,  but  not  uncourteous  manner — showing  them- 
selves to  be,  at  least,  in  one  respect,  better  off  than  the 
majority  of  European  peasants,  whose  educated  servility  of 
character  rarely  fails  to  manifest  itself,  when  they  meet  a 
well-dressed  stranger. 


232  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

The  household  markets  of  most  of  the  Southern  towns  seem 
to  be  mainly  supplied  by  the  poor  country  people,  who, 
driving  in  this  style,  bring  all  sorts  of  produce  to  exchange 
for  such  small  stores  and  articles  of  apparel  as  they  must 
needs  obtain  from  the  shops.  Sometimes,  owing  to  the  great 
extent  of  the  back  country  from  which  the  supplies  are 
gathered,  they  are  offered  in  great  abundance  and  variety :  at 
other  times,  from  the  want  of  regular  market-men,  there  will 
be  a  scarcity,  and  prices  will  be  very  high. 

A  stranger  cannot  but  express  surprise  and  amusement  at 
the  appearance  and  manners  of  these  country  traffickers  in  the 
market-place.  The  "wild  Irish"  hardly  differ  more  from 
the  English  gentry  than  these  rustics  from  the  better  class 
of  planters  and  towns-people,  with  whom  the  traveller  more 
commonly  comes  iu  contact.  Their  language  even  is  almost 
incomprehensible,  and  seems  exceedingly  droll,  to  a  Northern 
man.  I  have  found  it  quite  impossible  to  report  it.  I  shall 
not  soon  forget  the  figure  of  a  little  old  white  woman,  wear- 
ing a  man's  hat,  smoking  a  pipe,  driving  a  little  black  bull 
with  reins ;  sitting  herself  bolt  upright,  upon  the  axle-tree 
of  a  little  truck,  on  which  she  was  returning  from  market.  I 
was  riding  with  a  gentleman  of  the  town  at  the  time,  and,  as 
she  bowed  to  him  with  an  expression  of  ineffable  self-satisfac- 
tion, I  asked  if  he  knew  her.  He  had  known  her  for  twenty 
years,  he  said,  and  until  lately  she  had  always  come  into  town 
about  once  a  week,  on  foot,  bringing  fowls,  eggs,  potatoes,  or 
herbs,  for  sale  in  a  basket.  The  bull  she  had  probably  picked 
up  astray,  when  a  calf,  and  reared  and  broken  it  herself ;  and 
the  cart  and  harness  she  had  made  herself;  but  he  did  not 
think  anylady  in  the  land  felt  richer  than  she  did  now,  or 
prouder  of  her  establishment. 

In  the  afternoon,  I  left  the  main  road,  and,  towards  night, 
reached  a  much  more  cultivated  district.  The  forest  of  pines 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  GEORGIA.  233 

still  extended  uninterruptedly  on  one  side  of  the  way,  but  on 
the  other  was  a  continued  succession  of  very  large  fields,  of 
rich  dark  soil — evidently  reclaimed  swamp-land — wliich  had 
been  cultivated  the  previous  year,  in  Sea  Island  cotton.  Be- 
yond them,  a  flat  surface  of  still  lower  land,  with  a  silver 
thread  of  water  curling  through  it,  extended,  Holland-like,  to 
the  horizon.  Usually  at  as  great  a  distance  as  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  from  the  road,  and  from  half  a  mile  to  a  mile  apart,  were 
the  residences  of  the  planters — white  houses,  with  groves  of 
evergreen  trees  about  them ;  and  between  these  and  the  road 
were  little  villages  of  slave-cabins. 

My  directions  not  having  been  sufficiently  explicit,  I  rode 
in.  by  a  private  lane,  to  one  of  these.  It  consisted  of  some 
thirty  neatly-whitewashed  cottages,  with  a  broad  avenue, 
planted  with  Pride-of-China  trees  between  them. 

The  cottages  were  framed  buildings,  boarded  on  the  outside, 
with  shingle  roofs  and  brick  chimneys ;  they  stood  fifty  feet 
apart,  with  gardens  and  pig-yards,  enclosed  by  palings, 
between  them.  At  one,  which  was  evidently  the  "sick 
house,"  or  hospital,  there  were  several  negroes  of  both  sexes, 
wrapped  in  blankets,  and  reclining  on  the  door  steps  or  on 
the  ground,  basking  in  the  sunshine.  Some  of  them  looked 
ill,  but  all  were  chatting  and  laughing  as  I  rode  up  to  make 
an  inquiry.  I  learned  that  it  was  not  the  plantation  I  was 
intending  to  visit,  and  received  a  direction,  as  usual,  so  in- 
distinct and  incorrect  that  it  led  me  wrong. 

At  another  plantation  which  I  soon  afterwards  reached,  I 
found  the  "  settlement "  arranged  in  the  same  way,  the  cabins 
only  being  of  a  slightly  different  form.  In  the  middle  of  one 
row  was  a  well-house,  and  opposite  it,  on  the  other  row,  was  a 
mill-house,  with  stones,  at  which  the  negroes  grind  their  corn. 
It  is  a  kind  of  pestle  and  mortar ;  and  I  was  informed  after- 
wards that  the  negroes  prefer  to  take  their  allowance  of  corn  and 


234  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

crack  it  for  themselves,  rather  than  to  receive  meal,  because  they 
think  the  mill-ground  meal  does  not  make  as  sweet  bread. 

At  the  head  of  the  settlement,  in  a  garden  looking  down  the 
street,  was  an  overseer's  house,  and  here  the  road  divided, 
running  each  way  at  right  angles ;  on  one  side  to  barns  and 
a  landing  on  the  river,  on  the  other  toward  the  mansion  of 
the  proprietor.  A  negro  boy  opened  the  gate  of  the  latter, 
and  I  entered. 

On  either  side,  at  fifty  feet  distant,  were  rows  of  old  live  oak 
trees,  their  branches  and  twigs  slightly  hung  with  a  delicate 
fringe  of  gray  moss,  and  their  dark,  shining,  green  foliage, 
meeting  and  intermingling  naturally  but  densely  overhead. 
The  sunlight  streamed  through,  and  played  aslant  the  lustrous 
leaves,  and  fluttering  pendulous  moss ;  the  arch  was  low  and 
broad ;  the  trunks  were  huge  and  gnarled,  and  there  was  a 
heavy  groining  of  strong,  rough,  knotty,  branches.  I  stopped 
my  horse  and  held  my  breath ;  I  thought  of  old  Kit  North's 
rhapsody  on  trees  ;  and  it  was  no  rhapsody — it  was  all  here, 
and  real :  "  Light,  shade,  shelter,  coolness,  freshness,  music, 
dew,  and  dreams  dropping  through  their  umbrageous  twilight 
— dropping  direct,  soft,  sweet,  soothing,  and  restorative' from 
heaven." 

Alas !  no  angels ;  only  little  black  babies,  toddling  about 
with  an  older  child  or  two  to  watch  them,  occupied  the  aisle. 
At  the  upper  end  was  the  owner's  mansion,  with  a  circular 
court-yard  around  it,  and  an  irregular  plantation  of  great 
trees ;  one  of  the  oaks,  as  I  afterwards  learned,  seven  feet  in 
diameter  of  trunk,  and  covering  with  its  branches  a  circle  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  in  diameter.  As  I  approached 
it,  a  smart  servant  came  out  to  take  my  horse.  I  obtained 
from  him  a  direction  to  the  residence  of  the  gentleman  I  was 
searching  for,  and  rode  away,  glad  that  I  had  stumbled  into 
so  charming  a  place. 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  GEORGIA.  235 

After  riding  a  few  miles  further  I  reached  my  destination. 

Mr.  X.  has  two  plantations  on  the  river,  besides  a  large 
tract  of  poor  pine  forest  land,  extending  some  miles  back 
upon  the  upland,  and  reaching  above  the  malarious  region. 
In  the  upper  part  of  this  pine  land  is  a  house,  occupied  by 
his  overseer  during  the  malarious  season,  when  it  is  dangerous 
for  any  but  negroes  to  remain  during  the  night  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  swamps  or  rice-fields.  Even  those  few  who  have  been 
born  in  the  region,  and  have  grown  up  subject  to  the  malaria, 
are  said  to  be  generally  weakly  and  short-lived.  The  negroes 
do  not  enjoy  as  good  health  on  rice  plantations  as  elsewhere ; 
and  th6  greater  difficulty  with  which  their  lives  are  preserved, 
through  infancy  especially,  shows  that  the  subtle  poison  of 
the  miasma  is  not  innocuous  to  them ;  but  Mr.  X.  boasts  a 
steady  increase  of  his  negro  stock,  of  five  per  cent,  per  annum, 
which  is  better  than  is  averaged  on  the  plantations  of  the 
interior. 

The  plantation  which  contains  Mr.  X.'s  winter  residence  has 
but  a  small  extent  of  rice  land,  the  greater  part  of  it  being 
reclaimed  upland  swamp  soil,  suitable  for  the  culture  of  Sea 
Island  cotton.  The  other  plantation  contains  over  five 
hundred  acres  of  rice-land,  fitted  for  irrigation;  the  re- 
mainder is  unusually  fertile  reclaimed  upland  swamp,  and 
some  hundred  acres  of  it  are  cultivated  for  maize  and  Sea 
Island  cotton. 

There  is  a  "  negro  settlement "  on  each ;  but  both  planta- 
tions, although  a  mile  or  two  apart,  are  worked  together  as 
one,  under  one  overseer — the  hands  being  drafted  from  one 
to  another  as  their  labour  is  required.  Somewhat  over  seven 
hundred  acres  are  at  the  present  time  under  the  plough  in  the 
two  plantations:  the  whole  number  of  negroes  is  two 
hundred,  and  they  are  reckoned  to  be  equal  to  about  one 
hundred  prime  hands — an  unusual  strength  for  that  number 


236  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

of  all  classes.  The  overseer  lives,  in  winter,  near  the  settle- 
ment of  the  larger  plantation,  Mr.  X.  near  that  of  the  smaller. 
It  is  an  old  family  estate,  inherited  by  Mr.  X.'s  wife,  who, 
with  her  children,  were  born  and  brought  up  upon  it  in  close 
intimacy  with  the  negroes,  a  large  proportion  of  whom  were 
also  included  in  her  inheritance,  or  have  been  since  born  upon 
the  estate.  Mr.  X.  himself  is  a  New  England  farmer's  son, 
and  has  been  a  successful  merchant  and  manufacturer. 

The  patriarchal  institution  should  be  seen  here  under  its 
most  favourable  aspects ;  not  only  from  the  ties  of  long 
family  association,  common  traditions,  common  memories, 
and,  if  ever,  common  interests,  between  the  slaves  and  their 
rulers,  but,  also,  from  the  practical  talent  for  organization 
and  administration,  gained  among  the  rugged  fields,  the  com- 
plicated looms,  and  the  exact  and  comprehensive  counting- 
houses  of  New  England,  which  directs  the  labour. 

The  house- servants  are  more  intelligent,  understand  and 
perform    their   duties  better,    and   are   more   appropriately 
dressed,  than  any  I  have  seen  before.     The  labour  required 
of  them  is  light,  and  they  are  treated  with  much  more  con- 
sideration for  their  health  and  comfort  than  is  usually  given 
to  that  of  free  domestics.    They  live  in  brick  cabins,  adjoining 
the  house  and  stables,  and  one  of  these,  into  which  I  have 
looked,  is  neatly  and  comfortably  furnished.     Several  of  the 
^/house-servants,  as  is  usual,  are  mulattoes,  and  good-looking. 
f       The  mulattoes  are  generally  preferred  for  in-door  occupations. 
V       Slaves  brought  up  to  house-work  dread  to  be  employed  at 
\     field-labour ;   and  those  accustomed  to  the  comparatively  un- 
\    constrained   life   of  the  negro-settlement,   detest  the  close 
\  control  and  careful  movements  required  of  the  house-servants. 
S  It  is  a  punishment  for  a  lazy  field-hand,  to  employ  him  in 
\       menial  duties  at  the  house,  as  it  is  to  set  a  sneaking  sailor  to 
\    do  the  work  of  a  cabin-servant ;  and  it  is  equally  a  punish- 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  GEORGIA.  237 

ment  to  a  neglectful  house-servant,  to  banish  him  to  the  field- 
gangs.  All  the  household  economy  is,  of  course,  carried  on 
in  a  style  appropriate  to  a  wealthy  gentleman's  residence — 
not  more  so,  nor  less  so,  that  I  observe,  than  in  an  establish- 
ment of  similar  grade  at  the  North. 

It  is  a  custom  with  Mr.  X.,  when  on  the  estate,  to  look 
each  day  at  all  the  work  going  on,  inspect  the  buildings, 
boats,  embankments,  and  sluice-ways,  and  examine  the  sick. 
Yesterday  I  accompanied  him  in  one  of  these  daily  rounds. 

After  a  ride  of  several  miles  through  the  woods,  in  the  rear 
of  the  plantations  we  came  to  his  largest  negro-settlement. 
There  was  a  street,  or  common,  two  hundred  feet  wide,  on 
which  the  cabins  of  the  negroes  fronted.  Each  cabin  was  a 
framed  building,  the  walls  boarded  and  whitewashed  on  the 
outside,  lathed  and  plastered  within,  the  roof  shingled ; 
forty-two  feet  long,  twenty-one  feet  wide,  divided  into  two 
family  tenements,  each  twenty-one  by  twenty-one ;  eaoh  tene- 
ment divided  into  three  rooms — one,  the  common  household 
apartment,  twenty-one  by  ten ;  each  of  the  others  (bed- 
rooms), ten  by  ten.  There  was  a  brick  fire-place  in  the 
middle  of  the  long  side  of  each  living  room,  the  chimneys 
rising  in  one,  in  the  middle  of  the  roof.  Besides  these 
rooms,  each  tenement  had  a  cock-loft,  entered  by  steps  from 
the  household  room.  Each  tenement  is  occupied,  on  an 
average,  by  five  persons.  There  were  in  them  closets,  with 
locks  and  keys,  and  a  varying  quantity  of  rude  furniture.  Each 
cabin  stood  two  hundred  feet  from  the  next,  and  the  street  in 
front  of  them  being  two  hundred  feet  wide,  they  were  just 
that  distance  apart  each  way.  The  people  were  nearly  all 
absent  at  work,  and  had  locked  their  outer  doors,  taking  the 
keys  with  them.  Each  cabin  has  a  front  and  back  door,  and 
each  room  a  window,  closed  by  a  wooden  shutter,  swinging 
outward,  on  lunges.  Between  each  tenement  and  the  next 


238  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

house,  is  a  small  piece  of  ground,  inclosed  with  palings,  in 
which  are  coops  of  fowl  with  chickens,  hovels  for  nests,  and 
for  sows  with  pig.  There  were  a  great  many  fowls  in  the 
street.  The  negroes'  swine  are  allowed  to  run  in  the  woods, 
each  owner  having  his  own  distinguished  by  a  peculiar  mark. 
In  the  rear  of  the  yards  were  gardens — a  half-acre  to  each 
family.  Internally  the  cabins  appeared  dirty  and  disordered, 
which  was  rather  a  pleasant  indication  that  their  home-life 
was  not  much  interfered  with,  though  I  found  certain  police 
regulations  were  enforced. 

The  cabin  nearest  the  overseer's  house  was  used  as  a 
nursery.  Having  driven  up  to  this,  Mr.  X.  inquired  first  of 
an  old  nurse  how  the  children  were  ;  whether  there  had  been 
any  births  since  his  last  visit ;  spoke  to  two  convalescent 
young  mothers,  who  were  lounging  on  the  floor  of  the 
portico,  with  the  children,  and  then  asked  if  there  were  any 
sick  people. 

"  Nobody,  oney  dat  boy,  Sam,  sar." 

"  What  Sam  is  that  ?" 

"  Dat  little  Sam,  sar ;  Tom's  Sue's  Sam,  sar." 

"  What's  the  matter  with  him  ?" 

"  Don'  'spec  dere's  noting  much  de  matter  wid  him  now, 
sar.  He  came  in  Sa'dy,  complainin'  he  had  de  stomach-ache, 
an'  I  gin  him  some  ile,  sar  ;  'spec  he  mus'  be  well,  dis  time, 
but  he  din  go  out  dis  mornin'." 

"  Well,  I'll  see  to  him." 

Mr.  X.  went  to  Tom's  Sue's  cabin,  looked  at  the  boy,  and, 
concluding  that  he  was  well,  though  he  lay  abed,  and  pre- 
tended to  cry  with  pain,  ordered  him  to  go  out  to  work. 
Then,  meeting  the  overseer,  who  was  just  riding  away,  on 
some  business  of  the  plantation,  he  remained  some  time  in 
conversation  with  him,  while  I  occupied  myself  in  making  a 
sketch  of  the  nursery  and  street  of  the  settlement  in  my 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  GEORGIA.  239 

note-book.  On  the  verandah  and  the  steps  of  the  nursery, 
there  were  twenty-seven  children,  most  of  them  infants,  that 
had  been  left  there  by  their  mothers,  while  they  were  working 
their  tasks  in  the  fields.  They  probably  make  a  visit  to  them 
once  or  twice  during  the  day,  to  nurse  them,  and  receive 
them  to  take  to  their  cabins,  or  where  they  like,  when  they 
have  finished  their  tasks — generally  in  the  middle  of  the 
afternoon.  The  older  children  were  fed  with  porridge,  by  the 
general  nurse.  A  number  of  girls,  eight  or  ten  years  old, 
were  occupied  in  holding  and  tending  the  youngest  infants. 
Those  a"  little  older — the  crawlers — were  in  the  pen,  and 
those  big  enough  to  toddle  were  playing  on  the  steps,  or 
tafore  the  house.  Some  of  these,  with  two  or  three  bigger 
ones,  were  singing  and  dancing  about  a  fire  that  they  had 
made  on  the  ground.  They  were  not  at  all  disturbed  or  in- 
terrupted in  their  amusement  by  the  presence  of  their  owner 
and  myself.  At  twelve  years  of  age,  the  children  are  first  put 
to  regular  field-work ;  until  then  no  labour  is  required  of 
them,  except,  perhaps,  occasionally  they  are  charged  with 
some  light  kind  of  duty,  such  as  frightening  birds  from  corn. 
When  first  sent  to  the  field,  one  quarter  of  an  able-bodied 
hand's  day's  work  is  ordinarily  allotted  to  them,  as  their  task. 
From  the  settlement,  we  drove  to  the  "mill" — not  a 
flouring  mill,  though  I  believe  there  is  a  run  of  stones  in  it — 
but  a  monster  barn,  with  more  extensive  and  better  machinery 
for  threshing  and  storing  rice,  driven  by  a  steam-engine,  than 
I  have  ever  seen  used  for  grain  before.  Adjoining  the  mill- 
house  were  shops  and  sheds,  in  which  blacksmiths,  car- 
penters, and  other  mechanics — all  slaves,  belonging  to  Mr.  X. 
— were  at  work.  He  called  my  attention  to  the  excellence 
of  their  workmanship,  and  said  that  they  exercised  as  much 
ingenuity  and  skill  as  the  ordinary  mechanics  that  he  was 
used  to  employ  in  New  England.  He  pointed  out  to  me 


240  COTTON   AND   SLAVEEY. 

some  carpenter's  work,  a  part  of  which  had  been  executed  by 
a  New  England  mechanic,  and  a  part  by  one  of  his  own 
hands,  which  indicated  that  the  latter  was  much  the  better 
workman. 

I  was  gratified  by  this,  for  I  had  been  so  often  told,  in 
Virginia,  by  gentlemen  anxious  to  convince  me  that  the  negro 
was  incapable  of  being  educated  or  improved  to  a  condition  in 
which  it  would  be  safe  to  trust  him  with  himself — that  no 
negro-mechanic  could  ever  be  taught,  or  induced  to  work 
carefully  or  nicely — that  I  had  begun  to  believe  it  might  be  so. 
We  were  attended  through  the  mill-house  by  a  respect- 
able-looking, orderly,  and  quiet-mannered  mulatto,  who  was 
called,  by  his  master,  "the  watchman."     His  duties,  how- 
1  ever,  as  they  were  described  to  me,  were  those  of  a  steward, 
/    or  intendant.     He  carried,  by  a  strap  at  his  waist,  a  very 
/      large  number  of  keys,  and  had  charge  of  all  the  stores  of  pro- 
/        visions,  tools,  and  materials  of  the  plantations,  as  well  as  of 
V        all   their  produce,   before  it  was  shipped  to  market.      He 
\      weighed  and  measured  out  all  the  rations  of  the  slaves  and 
\    the  cattle ;    superintended   the  mechanics,   and  made  and 
\  repaired,  as  was  necessary,  all  the  machinery,  including  the 
steam-engine. 

In  all  these  departments,  his  authority  was  superior  to  that 
of  the  overseer.  The  overseer  received  his  private  allowance 
of  family  provisions  from  him,  as  did  also  the  head-servant  at 
the  mansion,  who  was  his  brother.  His  responsibility  was 
much  greater  than  that  of  the  overseer ;  and  Mr.  X.  said  he 
would  trust  him  with  much  more  than  he  would  any  overseer 
he  had  ever  known. 

Anxious  to  learn  how  this  trustworthiness  and  intelligence, 
so  unusual  in  a  slave,  had  been  developed  or  ascertained,  I 
inquired  of  his  history,  which  was  briefly  as  follows. 

Being  the  son  of  a  favourite  house-servant,  he  had  been,  as 


SOUTH  CAEOLINA  AND  GEORGIA.          241 

a  child,  associated  with  the  white  family,  and  received  by 
chance  something  of  the  early  education  of  the  white  children. 
When  old  enough,  he  had  been  employed,  for  some  years,  as 
a  waiter ;  but,  at  his  own  request,  was  eventually  allowed  to 
learn  the  blacksmith's  trade,  in  the  plantation  shop.  Showing 
ingenuity  and  talent,  he  was  afterwards  employed  to  make 
and  repair  the  plantation  cotton-gins.  Finally,  his  owner 
took  him  to  a  steam-engine  builder,  and  paid  $  500  to  have 
him  instructed  as  a  machinist.  After  he  had  become  a  skil- 
ful workman,  he  obtained  employment  as  an  engineer;  and  / 
for  some  years  continued  in  this  occupation,  and  was  allowed  / 
to  spend  his  wages  for  himself.  Finding,  however,  that  he 
was  acquiring  dissipated  habits,  and  wasting  his  earnings, 
Mr.  X.  eventually  brought  him,  much  against  his  inclinations, 
back  to  the  plantations.  Being  allowed  peculiar  privileges, 
and  given  duties  wholly  flattering  to  his  self-respect,  he  soon 
became  contented ;  and,  of  course,  was  able  to  be  extremely 
valuable  to  his  owner. 

I  have  seen  another  slave-engineer.  The  gentleman  who 
employed  him  told  me  that  he  was  a  man  of  talent,  and  of 
great  worth  of  character.  He  had  desired  to  make  him  free, 
but  his  owner,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Brokers, 

and  of  Dr.  -  's  Church,  in  New  York,  believed  that 

Providence  designed  the  negro  race  for  slavery,  and  refused 
to  sell  him  for  that  purpose.  He  thought  it  better  that  he 
(his  owner)  should  continue  to  receive  two  hundred  dollars  a 
year  for  his  services,  while  he  continued  able  to  work,  because 
then,  as  he  said,  he  should  feel  responsible  that  he  did  not 
starve,  or  come  upon  the  public  for  a  support,  in  his  old  age. 
The  man  himself,  having  light  and  agreeable  duties,  well  pro- 
vided for,  furnished  with  plenty  of  spending  money  by  his 
employer,  patronized  and  flattered  by  the  white  people,  ho- 
noured and  looked  up  to  by  those  of  his  own  colour,  was  rather 

VOL.  i.  R 


242  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

indifferent  in  the  matter ;  or  even,  perhaps,  preferred  to  re- 
main a  slave,  to  being  transported  for  life  to  Africa. 

The  watchman  was  a  fine-looking  fellow :  as  we  were  re- 
turning from  church,  on  Sunday,  he  had  passed  us,  well 
dressed  and  well  mounted,  and  as  he  raised  his  hat,  to  salute 
us,  there  was  nothing  in  his  manner  or  appearance,  except 
his  colour,  to  distinguish  him  from  a  gentleman  of  good 
breeding  and  fortune. 

When  we  were  leaving  the  house,  to  go  to  church,  on 
Sunday,  after  all  the  white  family  had  entered  their  carriages, 
or  mounted  their  horses,  the  head  house-servant  also  mounted 
a  horse — as  he  did  so,  slipping  a  coin  into  the  hands  of  the 
boy  who  had  been  holding  him.  Afterwards,  we  passed  a 
family  of  negroes,  in  a  light  waggon,  the  oldest  among  them 
driving  the  horse.  On  my  inquiring  if  the  slaves  were 
allowed  to  take  horses  to  drive  to  church,  I  was  informed  that 
in  each  of  these  three  cases,  the  horses  belonged  to  the  ne- 
groes who  were  driving  or  riding  them.  The  old  man  was 
infirm,  and  Mr.  X.  had  given  him  a  horse,  to  enable  him  to 
move  about.  He  was  probably  employed  to  look  after  the 
cattle  at  pasture,  or  at  something  in  which  it  was  necessary, 
for  his  usefulness,  that  he  should  have  a  horse :  I  say  this, 
because  I  afterwards  found,  in  similar  cases  on  other  planta- 
tions, that  it  was  so.  But  the  watchman  and  the  house  ser- 
vant had  bought  their  horses  with  money.  The  watchman 
was  believed  to  own  three  horses ;  and,  to  account  for  his 
wealth,  Mr.  X.'s  son  told  me  that  his  father  considered  him 
a  very  valuable  servant,  and  frequently  encouraged  his  good 
behaviour  with  handsome  gratuities.  He  receives,  probably, 
considerably  higher  wages,  in  fact  (in  the  form  of  presents), 
than  the  white  overseer.  He  knew  his  father  gave  bim  two 
hundred  dollars  at  once,  a  short  time  ago.  The  watchman  has 
a  private  house,  and,  no  doubt,  lives  in  considerable  luxury. 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  GEORGIA.  243 

Will  it  be  said,  "  therefore,  Slavery  is  neither  necessarily 
degrading  nor  inhumane  ?"  On  the  other  hand,  so  far  as  it 
is  not,  there  is  no  apology  for  it.  It  is  possible,  though  not 
probable,  that  this  fine  fellow,  if  he  had  been  born  a  free  man, 
would  be  no  better  employed  than  he  is  here ;  but,  in  that 
case,  where  is  the  advantage  ?  Certainly  not  in  the  economy 
of  the  arrangement.  And  if  he  were  self-dependent,  if,  espe- 
cially, he  had  to  provide  for  the  present  and  future  of  those 
he  loved,  and  was  able  to  do  so,  would  he  not  necessarily 
live  a  happier,  stronger,  better,  and  more  respectable  man  ? 

After  passing  through  tool-rooms,  corn-rooms,  mule-stables, 
store-rooms,  and  a  large  garden,  in  which  vegetables  to  be 
distributed  among  the  negroes,  as  well  as  for  the  family,  are 
grown,  we  walked  to  the  rice-land.  It  is  divided  by  embank- 
ments into  fields  of  about  twenty  acres  each,  but  varying 
somewhat  in  size,  according  to  the  course  of  the  river.  The 
arrangements  are  such  that  each  field  may  be  flooded  inde- 
pendently of  the  rest,  and  they  are  subdivided  by  open  ditches 
into  rectangular  plats  of  a  quarter  acre  each.  We  first  pro- 
ceeded to  where  twenty  or  thirty  women  and  girls  were  en- 
gaged in  raking  together,  in  heaps  and  winrows,  the  stubble 
and  rubbish  left  on  the  field  after  the  last  crop,  and  burning 
it.  The  main  object  of  this  operation  is  to  kill  all  the  seeds 
of  weeds,  or  of  rice,  on  the  ground.  Ordinarily  it  is  done  by 
tasks — a  certain  number  of  the  small  divisions  of  the  field 
being  given  to  each  hand  to  burn  in  a  day ;  but  owing  to  a 
more  than  usual  amount  of  rain  having  fallen  lately,  and 
some  other  causes,  making  the  work  harder  in  some  places 
than  others,  the  women  were  now  working  by  the  day,  under 
the  direction  of  a  "driver,"  a  negro  man,  who  walked  about 
among  them,  taking  care  that  they  left  nothing  unburned. 
Mr.  X.  inspected  the  ground  they  had  gone  over,  to  sea 
whether  the  driver  had  done  his  duty.  It  had  been  suffi- 

R  2 


244  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

ciently  well  burned,  but  not  more  than  a  quarter  as  much  ground 
had  been  gone  over,  he  said,  as  was  usually  burned  in  task- 
work,— and  he  thought  they  had  been  very  lazy,  and  repri- 
manded them.  The  driver  made  some  little  apology,  but  the 
women  offered  no  reply,  keeping  steadily  and,  it  seemed,  sul- 
lenly, on  at  their  work. 

In  the  next  field,  twenty  men,  or  boys,  for  none  of  them 
looked  as  if  they  were  full-grown,  were  ploughing,  each  with 
a  single  mule,  and  a  light,  New- York-made  plough.  The  soil 
was  friable,  the  ploughing  easy,  and  the  mules  proceeded  at  a 
smart  pace ;  the  furrows  were  straight,  regular,  and  well 
turned.  Their  task  was  nominally  an  acre  and  a  quarter  a 
day ;  somewhat  less  actually,  as  the  measure  includes  the 
space  occupied  by  the  ditches,  which  are  two  to  three  feet 
wide,  running  around  each  quarter  of  an  acre.  The  plough- 
ing gang  was  superintended  by  a  driver,  who  was  provided 
with  a  watch  ;  and  while  we  were  looking  at  them  he  called 
out  that  it  was  twelve  o'clock.  The  mules  were  immediately 
taken  from  the  ploughs,  and  the  plough-boys  mounting  them, 
leapt  the  ditches,  and  cantered  off  to  the  stables,  to  feed  them. 
One  or  two  were  ordered  to  take  then-  ploughs  to  the  black- 
smith, for  repairs. 

The  ploughmen  got  their  dinner  at  this  time :  those  not 
using  horses  do  not  usually  dine  till  they  have  finished  their 
tasks  ;  but  this,  I  believe,  is  optional  with  them.  They  com- 
mence work,  I  was  told,  at  sunrise,  and  at  about  eight  o'clock 
have  breakfast  brought  to  them  in  the  field,  each  hand  having 
left  a  bucket  with  the  cook  for  that  purpose.  All  who  are 
working  in  connection,  leave  their  work  together,  and  gather 
about  a  fire,  where  they  generally  spend  about  half  an  hour. 
The  provisions  furnished,  consist  mainly  of  meal,  rice,  and 
vegetables,  with  salt  and  molasses,  and  occasionally  bacon, 
fish,  and  coffee.  The  allowance  is  a  peck  of  meal,  or  an 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  GEORGIA.  245 

equivalent  quantity  of  rice  per  week,  to  each  working  hand, 
old  or  young,  besides  small  stores.  Mr.  X.  says  that  he  has 
lately  given  a  less  amount  of  meat  than  is  now  usual  on  plan- 
tations, having  observed  that  the  general  health  of  the  negroes 
is  not  as  good  as  formerly,  when  no  meat  at  all  was  cus- 
tomarily given  them.  (The  general  impression  among 
planters  is,  that  the  negroes  work  much  better  for  being 
supplied  with  three  or  four  pounds  of  bacon  a  week.) 

Leaving  the  rice-land,  we  went  next  to  some  of  the  upland 
fields,  where  we  found  several  other  gangs  of  negroes  at  work ; 
one  entirely  of  men  engaged  in  ditching  ;  another  of  women, 
and  another  of  boys  and  girls,  "  listing  "  an  old  corn-field 
with  hoes.  All  of  them  were  working  by  tasks,  and  were 
overlooked  by  negro  drivers.  They  all  laboured  with  greater 
rapidity  and  cheerfulness  than  any  slaves  I  have  before  seen  ; 
and  the  women  struck  their  hoes  as  if  they  were  strong,  and 
well  able  to  engage  in  muscular  labour.  The  expression  of 
their  faces  was  generally  repulsive,  and  their  ensemble  any- 
thing but  agreeable.  The  dress  of  most  was  uncouth  and 
cumbrous,  dirty  and  ragged ;  reefed  up,  as  I  have  once 
before  described,  at  the  hips,  so  as  to  show  their  heavy  legs, 
wrapped  round  with  a  piece  of  old  blanket,  in  lieu  of  leg- 
gings or  stockings.  Most  of  them  worked  with  bare  arms, 
but  wore  strong  shoes  on  their  feet,  and  handkerchiefs  on 
their  heads  ;  some  of  them  were  smoking,  and  each  gang  had 
a  fire  burning  on  the  ground,  near  where  they  were  at  work, 
by  which  to  light  their  pipes  and  warm  their  breakfast.  Mr.  X. 
said  this  was  always  their  custom,  even  in  summer.  To 
each  gang  a  boy  or  girl  was  also  attached,  whose  business  it 
was  to  bring  water  for  them  to  drink,  and  to  go  for  anything 
required  by  the  driver.  The  drivers  would  frequently  call 
back  a  hand  to  go  over  again  some  piece  of  his  or  her  task 
that  had  not  been  worked  to  his  satisfaction,  and  were  con- 


246  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

stantly  calling  to  one  or  another,  with  a  harsh  and  peremptory 
voice,  to  strike  harder,  or  hoe  deeper,  and  otherwise  taking 
care  that  the  work  was  well  done.  Mr.  X.  asked  if  Little 
Sam  ("Tom's  Sue's  'Sam")  worked  yet  with  the  "three- 
quarter  "  hands,  and  learning  that  he  did,  ordered  him  to  be 
put  with  the  full  hands,  observing  that  though  rather  short, 
he  was  strong  and  stout,  and,  being  twenty  years  old,  well 
jble  to  do  a  man's  work. 

The  field-hands  are  all  divided  into  four  classes,  according 
their  physical  capacities.  The  children  beginning  as 
"  quarter-hands,"  advancing  to  "  half-hands,"  and  then  to 
"  three-quarter  hands  ;"  and,  finally,  when  mature,  and  able- 
bodied,  healthy,  and  strong,  to  "full  hands."  As  they  de- 
^cline  in  strength,  from  age,  sickness,  or  other  cause,  they 
betrograde  in  the  scale,  and  proportionately  less  labour  is  re- 
quired of  them.  Many,  of  naturally  weak  frame,  never  are 
put  among  the  full  hands.  Finally,  the  aged  are  left  out  at 
the  annual  classification,  and  no  more  regular  field-work  is 
required  of  them,  although  they  are  generally  provided  with 
some  light,  sedentary  occupation.  I  saw  one  old  woman 
picking  "  tailings  "  of  rice  out  of  a  heap  of  chaff,  an  occupa- 
tion at  which  she  was  probably  not  earning  her  salt.  Mr.  X. 
told  me  she  was  a  native  African,  having  been  brought  when 
a  girl  from  the  Guinea  coast.  She  spoke  almost  unintel- 
ligibly ;  but  after  some  other  conversation,  in  which  I  had 
not  been  able  to  understand  a  word  she  said,  he  jokingly 
proposed  to  send  her  back  to  Africa.  She  expressed  her  pre- 
ference to  remain  where  she  was,  very  emphatically.  "  Why  ?" 
She  did  not  answer  readily,  but  being  pressed,  threw  up  her 
palsied  hands,  and  said  furiously,  "  I  lubs  'ou,  mas'r,  oh,  I 
lubs  'ou.  I  don't  want  go  'way  from  'on." 

The  field-hands  are  nearly  always  worked  in  gangs,  the 
strength  of  a  gang  varying  according  to  the  work  that  en 


SOUTH  CAHOLINA  AND  GEORGIA.  247 

gages  it ;  usually  it  numbers  twenty  or  more,  and  is  directed 
by  a  driver.  As  on  most  large  plantations,  whether  of  rice 
or  cotton,  in  Eastern  Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  nearly  all 
ordinary  and  regular  work  is  performed  l>y  tasks :  that  is  to 
say,  each  hand  has  his  labour  for  the  day  marked  out  before 
him,  and  can  take  his  own  time  to  do  it  in.  For  instance,  in 
making  drains  in  light,  clean  meadow  land,  each  man  or 
woman  of  the  full  hands  is  required  to  dig  one  thousand  cubic 
feet ;  in  swamp-land  that  is  being  prepared  for  rice  culture, 
where  there  are  not  many  stumps,  the  task  for  a  ditcher  is  five 
hundred  feet :  while  in  a  very  strong  cypress  swamp,  only 
two  hundred  feet  is  required ;  in  hoeing  rice,  a  certain  num- 
ber of  rows,  equal  to  one-half  or  two-thirds  of  an  acre,  accord- 
ing to  the  condition  of  the  land  ;  in  sowing  rice  (strewing  in 
drills),  two  acres ;  in  reaping  rice  (if  it  stands  well),  three- 
quarters  of  an  acre ;  or,  sometimes  a  gang  will  be  required 
to  reap,  tie  in  sheaves,  and  carry  to  the  stack-yard  the  pro- 
duce of  a  certain  area,  commonly  equal  to  one  fourth  the 
number  of  acres  that  there  are  hands  working  together. 
Hoeing  cotton,  corn,  or  potatoes ;  one  half  to  one  acre. 
Threshing ;  five  to  six  hundred  sheaves.  In  ploughing  rice- 
land  (light,  clean,  mellow  soil)  with  a  yoke  of  oxen,  one  acre 
a  day,  including  the  ground  lost  in  and  near  the  drains — the 
oxen  being  changed  at  noon.  A  cooper,  also,  for  instance,  is 
required  to  make  barrels  at  the  rate  of  eighteen  a  week. 
Drawing  staves,  500  a  day.  Hoop  poles,  120.  Squaring 
timber,  100  ft.  Laying  worm-fence,  50  panels  per  hand. 
Post  and  rail  do.,  posts  set  2£  to  3  ft.  deep,  9  ft.  apart,  nine 
or  ten  panels  per  hand.  In  getting  fuel  from  the  woods, 
(pine,  to  be  cut  and  split,)  one  cord  is  the  task  for  a  day. 
In  "  mauling  rails,"  the  taskman  selecting  the  trees  (pine) 
that  he  judges  will  split  easiest,  one  hundred  a  day,  ends  not 
sharpened. 


248  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

These  are  the  tasks  for  first-class  able-bodied  men ;  they  are 
lessened  by  one  quarter  for  three  quarter  hands,  and  propor- 
tionately for  the  lighter  classes.  In  allotting  the  tasks,  the 
drivers  are  expected  to  put  the  weaker  hands  where  (if  there 
is  any  choice  in  the  appearance  of  the  ground,  as  where 
certain  rows  in  hoeing  corn  would  be  less  weedy  than  others,) 
they  will  be  favoured. 

These  tasks  certainly  would  not  be  considered  excessively 
hard,  by  a  Northern  labourer ;  and,  in  point  of  fact,  the  more 
industrious  and  active  hands  finish  them  often  by  two  o'clock. 
I  saw  one  or  two  leaving  the  field  soon  after  one  o'clock, 
several  about  two  ;  and  between  three  and  four,  I  met  a  dozen 
women  and  several  men  coming  home  to  their  cabins,  having 
finished  their  day's  work. 

Under  this  "  Organization  of  Labour,"  most  of  the  slaves 
work  rapidly  and  well.  In  nearly  all  ordinary  work,  custom 
has  settled  the  extent  of  the  task,  and  it  is  difficult  to  increase 
it.  The  driver  who  marks  it  out,  has  to  remain  on  the 
ground  until  it  is  finished,  and  has  no  interest  in  over- 
measuring  it;  and  if  it  should  be  systematically  increased 
very  much,  there  is  danger  of  a  general  stampede  to  the 
"  swamp" — a  danger  the  slave  can  always  hold  before  his 
master's  cupidity.  In  fact,  it  is  looked  upon  in  this  region 
as  a  proscriptive  right  of  the  negroes  to  have  this  incitement 
to  diligence  offered  them ;  and  the  man  who  denied  it,  or  who 
attempted  to  lessen  it,  would,  it  is  said,  suffer  in  his  reputa- 
tion, as  well  as  experience  much  annoyance  from  the  obstinate 
"rascality"  of  his  negroes.  Noth withstanding  this,  I  have 
heard  a  man  assert,  boastingly,  that  he  made  his  negroes 
habitually  perform  double  the  customary  tasks.  Thus  we  get 
a  glimpse  again  of  the  black  side.  If  he  is  allowed  the  power 
to  do  this,  what  may  not  a  man  do  ? 

It  is  the  driver's  duty  to  make  the  tasked  hands  do  their 


SOUTH  CAKOLINA  AND  GEORGIA.          249 

work  well.  If,  in  their  haste  to  finish  it,  they  neglect  to  do 
it  properly,  he  "sets  them  back,"  so  that  carelessness  will 
hinder  more  than  it  will  hasten  the  completion  of  their 
tasks. 

In  the  selection  of  drivers,  regard  seems  to  be  had  to  size ' 
and  strength — at  least,  nearly  all  the  drivers  I  have  seen  are 
tall  and  strong  men — but  a  great  deal  of  judgment,  requiring 
greater  capacity  of  mind  than  the  ordinary  slave  is  often  sup- 
posed to  be  possessed  of,  is  certainly  needed  in  them.    A  good     X* 
driver  is  very  valuable  and  usually  holds  office  for  life.     His  / 
authority  is  not  limited  to  the  direction  of  labour  in  the  fieldj 
but  extends  to  the  general  deportment  of  the  negroes.     He  is 
made  to  do  the  duties  of  policeman,  and  even  of  police  magis- 
trate.   It  is  his  duty,  for  instance,  on  Mr.  X.'s  estate,  to  keep 
order  in  the  settlement ;  and,  if  two  persons,  men  or  women, 
are  fighting,  it  is  his  duty  to  immediately  separate  them,  and 
then  to  "  whip  them  both." 

Before  any  field  of  work  is  entered  upon  by  a  gang,  the 
driver  who  is  to  superintend  them  has  to  measure  and  stake  , 
off  the  tasks.  To  do  this  at  all  accurately,  in  irregular-shaped 
fields,  must  require  considerable  powers  of  calculation.  A 
driver,  with  a  boy  to  set  the  stakes,  I  was  told,  would  accu- 
rately lay  out  forty  acres  a  day,  in  half-acre  tasks.  The  only 
instrument  used  is  a  five-foot  measuring  rod.  When  the 
gang  comes  to  the  field,  he  points  out  to  each  person  his  or 
her  duty  for  the  day,  and  then  walks  about  among  them,  look- 
ing out  that  each  proceeds  properly.  If,  after  a  hard  day's 
labour,  he  sees  that  the  gang  has  been  overtasked,  owing  to  a 
miscalculation  of  the  difficulty  of  the  work,  he  may  excuse  the 
completion  of  the  tasks ;  but  he  is  not  allowed  to  extend 
them.  In  the  case  of  uncompleted  tasks,  the  body  of  the  gang 
begin  new  tasks  the  next  day,  and  only  a  sufficient  number 
are  detailed  from  it  to  complete,  during  the  day,  the  un- 


250  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

finished  tasks  of  the  day  before.  The  relation  of  the  driver 
to  the  working  hands  seems  to  be  similar  to  that  of  the  boat- 
swain to  the  seamen  in  the  navy,  or  of  the  sergeant  to  the  pri- 
vates in  the  army. 

Having  generally  had  long  experience  on  the  plantation, 

Pthe  advice  of  the  drivers  is  commonly  taken  in  nearly  all  the 
administration,  apd  frequently  they  are,  de  facto,  the  ma- 
nagers. Orders  on  important  points  of  the  plantation  economy, 
I  have  heard  given  by  the  proprietor  directly  to  them,  with- 
out the  overseer's  being  consulted  or  informed  of  them ;  and 
it  is  often  left  with  them  to  decide  when  and  how  long  to  flow 
the  rice-grounds — the  proprietor  and  overseer  deferring  to 
their  more  experienced  judgment.  Where  the  drivers  are  dis- 
creet, experienced,  and  trusty,  the  overseer  is  frequently  em- 
ployed merely  as  a  matter  of  form,  to  comply  with  the  laws 
requiring  the  superintendence  or  presence  of  a  white  man 
among  every  body  of  slaves ;  and  his  duty  is  rather  to  inspect 
and  report  than  to  govern.  Mr.  X.  considers  his  overseer  an 
uncommonly  efficient  and  faithful  one,  but  he  would  not  em- 
ploy him,  even  during  the  summer,  when  he  is  absent  for 
several  months,  if  the  law  did  not  require  it.  He  has  some- 
times left  his  plantation  in  care  of  one  of  the  drivers  for  a 
considerable  length  of  time,  after  having  discharged  an  over- 
seer ;  and  he  thinks  it  has  then  been  quite  as  well  conducted 
as  ever.  His  overseer  consults  the  drivers  on  all  important 
points,  and  is  governed  by  their  advice. 

Mr.  X.  said,  that  though  overseers  sometimes  punished  the 
negroes  severely,  and  otherwise  ill-treated  them,  it  is  their 
more  common  fault  to  indulge  them  foolishly  in  then:  dispo- 
sition to  idleness,  or  in  other  ways  to  curry  favour  with  them, 
so  they  may  not  inform  the  proprietor  of  their  own  misconduct 
or  neglect.  He  has  his  overseer  bound  to  certain  rules,  by 
written  contract;  and  it  is  stipulated  that  he  can  discharge 


SOUTH   CAROLINA   AND    GEORGIA.  251 

him  at  any  moment,  without  remuneration  for  his  loss  of  time 
and  inconvenience,  if  he  should  at  any  time  be  dissatisfied 
with  him.  One  of  the  rules  is,  that  he  shall  never  punish  a 
negro  with  his  own  hands,  and  that  corporeal  punishment, 
when  necessary,  shall  he  inflicted  by  the  drivers.  The  advan- 
tage of  this  is,  that  it  secures  time  for  deliberation,  and  pre- 
vents punishment  being  made  in  sudden  passion.  His  drivers 
are  not  allowed  to  carry  their  whips  with  them  in  the  field ; 
so  that  if  the  overseer  wishes  a  hand  punished,  it  is  necessary 
to  call  a  driver ;  and  the  driver  has  then  to  go  to  his  cabin, 
which  is,  perhaps,  a  mile  or  two  distant,  to  get  his  whip,  be- 
fore it  can  be  applied. 

I  asked  how  often  the  necessity  of  punishment  occurred  ? 

"  Sometimes,  perhaps,  not  once  for  two  or  three  weeks ; 
then  it  will  seem  as  if  the  devil  had  got  into  them  all,  and 
there  is  a  good  deal  of  it." 

As  the  negroes  finish  the  labour  required  of  them  by  Mr.  X., 
at  three  or  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  they  can  employ 
the  remainder  of  the  day  in  labouring  for  themselves,  if  they 
choose.  Each  family  has  a  half-acre  of  land  allotted  to  it, 
for  a  garden ;  besides  which,  there  is  a  large  vegetable  garden, 
cultivated  by  a  gardener  for  the  plantation,  from  which  they 
are  supplied,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent.  They  are  at  liberty 
to  sell  whatever  they  choose  from  the  products  of  their  own 
garden,  and  to  make  what  they  can  by  keeping  swine  and 
fowls.  Mr.  X.'s  family  have  no  other  supply  qf  poultry  and 
eggs  than  what  is  obtained  by  purchase  from  his  own  ne- 
groes ;  they  frequently,  also,  purchase  game  from  them.  The 
only  restriction  upon  their  traffic  is  a  "  liquor  law."  They 
are  not  allowed  to  buy  or  sell  ardent  spirits.  This  prohi- 
bition, like  liquor  laws  elsewhere,  unfortunately,  cannot  be 
enforced;  and,  of  late  years,  grog  shops,  at  which  stolen 
goods  are  bought  from  the  slaves,  and  poisonous  liquors — 


252  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

chiefly  the  worst  whisky,  much  watered  and  made  stupefying 
•by  an  infusion  of  tobacco — are  clandestinely  sold  to  them, 
have  become  an  established  evil,  and  the  planters  find  them- 
selves almost  powerless  to  cope  with  it.  They  have,  here, 
lately  organized  an  association  for  this  purpose,  and  have 
brought  several  offenders  to  trial ;  but,  as  it  is  a  penitentiary 
offence,  the  culprit  spares  no  pains  or  expense  to  avoid  con- 
viction— and  it  is  almost  impossible,  in  a  community  of  which 
so  large  a  proportion  is  poor  and  degraded,  to  have  a  jury 
sufficiently  honest  and  intelligent  to  permit  the  law  to  be 
executed. 

A  remarkable  illustration  of  this  evil  has  lately  occurred. 
A  planter,  discovering  that  a  considerable  quantity  of  cotton 
had  been  stolen  from  him,  informed  the  patrol  of  the  neigh- 
bouring planters  of  it.  A  stratagem  was  made  use  of,  to  detect 
the  thief,  and,  what  was  of  much  more  importance — there 
being  no  question  but  that  this  was  a  slave — to  discover  for 
whom  the  thief  worked.  A  lot  of  cotton  was  prepared,  by 
mixing  hair  with  it,  and  put  in  a  tempting  place.  A  negro 
was  seen  to  take  it,  and  was  followed  by  scouts  to  a  grog- 
shop, several  miles  distant,  where  he  sold  it — its  real  value 
being  nearly  ten  dollars — for  ten  cents,  taking  his  pay  in 
liquor.  The  man  was  arrested,  and,  the  theft  being  made  to 
appear,  by  the  hair,  before  a  justice,  obtained  bail  in  $  2,000, 
to  answer  at  the  higher  court.  Some  of  the  best  legal 
counsel  of  the  State  has  been  engaged,  to  obtain,  if  possible, 
his  conviction. 

This  difficulty  in  the  management  of  slaves  is  a  great  and 
very  rapidly  increasing  one.  Everywhere  that  I  have  been,  I 
have  found  the  planters  provoked  and  angry  about  it.  A 
swarm  of  Jews,  within  the  last  ten  years,  has  settled  in  nearly 
every  Southern  town,  many  of  them  men  of  no  character, 
opening  cheap  clothing  and  trinket  shops ;  mining,  or  driving 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  GEORGIA.          253 

out  of  business,  many  of  the  old  retailers,  and  engaging  in  an 
unlawful  trade  with  the  simple  negroes,  which  is  found  very 
profitable.* 

The  law  which  prevents  the  reception  of  the  evidence  of  a 
negro  in  courts,  here  strikes  back,  with  a  most  annoying 
force,  upon  the  dominant  power  itself.  In  the  mischief  thus 
arising,  we  see  a  striking  illustration  of  the  danger  which 
stands  before  the  South,  whenever  its  prosperity  shall  invite 
extensive  immigration,  and  lead  what  would  otherwise  be  a 
healthy  competition  to  flow  through  its  channels  of  industry. 

This  injury  to  slave  property,  from  grog-shops,  furnishes 
the  grand  argument  for  the  Maine  Law  at  the  South.  | 

*  From  the  Charleston  Standard,  Nov.  23rd,  1854. — "  This  abominable  prac- 
tice of  trading  with  slaves  is  not  only  taking  our  produce  from  us,  but  injuring 
our  slave  property.  It  is  true  the  owner  of  slaves  may  lock,  watch,  and  whip,  as 
much  as  he  pleases — the  negroes  will  steal  and  trade  as  long  as  white  persons  hold 
out  to  them  temptations  to  steal  and  bring  to  them.  Three-fourths  of  the  persons 
who  are  guilty,  you  can  get  no  fine  from  ;  and,  if  they  have  some  property, 
all  they  have  to  do  is  to  confess  a  judgment  to  a  friend,  go  to  jail,  and  swear  out. 
It  is  no  uncommon  thing  for  a  man  to  be  convicted  of  ofiences  against  the  State, 
and  against  the  persons  and  property  of  individuals,  and  pay  the  fines,  costs,  and 
damages,  by  swearing  out  of  jail,  and  then  go  and  commit  similar  offences.  The 
State,  or  the  party  injured,  has  the  cost  of  all  these  prosecutions  and  suits  to  pay, 
besides  the  trouble  of  attending  Court :  the  guilty  is  convicted,  the  injured  prose- 
cutor punished." 

f  From  an  Address  to  the  people  of  Georgia,  by  a  Committee  of  the  State 
Temperance  Society,  prior  to  the  election  of  1855. — "  We  propose  to  turn  the 
2,200  foreign  grog-shop  keepers,  in  Georgia,  out  of  offioe,  and  ask  them  to  help  us. 
They  (the  Know-Nothings)  reply,  '  We  have  no  time  for  that  now — we  are  trying 
to  turn  foreigners  out  of  office ;'  and  when  we  call  upon  the  Democratic  party  for 
aid,  they  excuse  themselves,  upon  the  ground  that  they  have  work  enough  to  do  in 
keeping  these  foreigners  in  office." 

From  the  Penfield  ((?«.)  Temperance  Banner,  Sept.  29th,  1855. 

"  OUR  SLAVE  POPULATION. 

"  We  take  the  following  from  the  Savannah  Journal  and  Courier,  and  would 
ask  every  candid  reader  if  the  evils  referred  to  ought  not  to  be  corrected.  How 
(•hall  it  be  done  ? 

"'  By  reference  to  the  recent  homicide  of  a  negro,  in  another  column,  some  facts 


254  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

Mr.  X.  remarks  that  his  arrangements  allow  his  servants 
no  excuse  for  dealing  with  these  fellows.  He  has  a  rule  to 
purchase  everything  they  desire  to  sell,  #nd  to  give  them  a 
high  price  for  it  himself.  Eggs  constitute  a  circulating 
medium  on  the  plantation.  Their  par  value  is  considered  to 
be  twelve  for  a  dime,  at  which  they  may  always  be  exchanged 
for  cash,  or  left  on  deposit,  without  interest,  at  his  kitchen. 

Whatever  he  takes  of  them  that  he  cannot  use  in  his  own 
family,  or  has  not  occasion  to  give  to  others  of  his  servants, 
is  sent  to  town  to  be  resold.  The  negroes  do  not  commonly 
take  money  for  the  articles  he  has  of  them,  but  the  value  of 
them  is  put  to  their  credit,  and  a  regular  account  kept  with 
them.  He  has  a  store,  usually  well  supplied  with  articles 
that  they  most  want,  which  are  purchased  in  large  quantities, 
and  sold  to  them  at  wholesale  prices ;  thus  giving  them  a 


will  be  seen  suggestive  of  a  state  of  things,  in  this  part  of  our  population,  which 
should  not  exist,  and  which  cannot  endure  without  danger,  both  to  them  and  to  us. 
The  collision,  which  terminated  thus  fatally,  occurred  at  an  hour  past  midnight — 
at  a  time  when  none  but  the  evil-disposed  are  stirring,  unless  driven  by  necessity  ; 
and  yet,  at  that  hour,  those  negroes  and  others,  as  many  as  chose,  were  passing 
about  the  country,  with  ample  opportunity  to  commit  any  act  which  might  happen 
to  enter  their  heads.  In  fact,  they  did  engage,  in  the  public  highway,  in  a  broil 
terminating  in  homicide.  It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  that  their  evil  passions 
might  have  taken  a  very  different  direction,  with  as  little  danger  of  meeting  control 
or  obstacle. 

"  '  But  it  is  shown,  too,  that  to  the  impunity  thus  given  them  by  the  darkness 
of  midnight,  was  added  the  incitement  to  crime  drawn  from  the  abuse  of  liquor. 
They  had  just  left  one  of  those  resorts  where  the  negro  is  supplied  with  the  most 
villanously-poisonous  compounds,  fit  only  to  excite  him  to  deeds  of  blood  and 
violence.  The  part  that  this  had  ii>  the  slaughter  of  Saturday  night,  we  are  enabled 
only  to  imagine  ;  but  experience  would  teach  us  that  its  share  was  by  no  means 
small.  Indeed,  we  have  the  declaration  of  the  slayer,  that  the  blow,  by  which  he 
was  exasperated  so  as  to  return  it  by  the  fatal  stab,  was  inflicted  by  a  bottle 
of  brandy !  In  this  fact,  we  fear,  is  a  clue  to  the  whole  history  of  the  trans- 
action.' 

"  Here,  evidently,  are  considerations  deserving  the  grave  notice  of,  not  only 
those  who  own  negroes,  but  of  all  others  who  live  in  a  society  where  they  are 
held." 


SOUTH   CAROLINA   AND    GEORGIA.  255 

great  advantage  in  dealing  with  him  rather  than  with  the 
grog-shops.  His  slaves  are  sometimes  his  creditors  to  large 
amounts ;  at  the  present  time  he  says  he  owes  them  about 
five  hundred  dollars.  A  woman  has  charge  of  the  store,  and 
when  there  is  anything  called  for  that  she  cannot  supply,  it  is 
usually  ordered,  by  the  next  conveyance,  of  his  factors  in  town. 

The  ascertained  practicability  of  thus  dealing  with  slaves, 
together  with  the  obvious  advantages  of  the  method  of  work- 
ing them  by  tasks,  which  I  have  described,  seem  to  me  to 
indicate  that  it  is  not  so  impracticable  as  is  generally  supposed, 
if  only  it  was  desired  by  those  having  the  power,  to  rapidly 
extinguish  Slavery,  and  while  doing  so,  to  educate  the  negro 
for  taking  care  of  himself,  in  freedom.  Let,  for  instance,  any 
slave  be  provided  with  all  things  he  will  demand,  as  far  as 
practicable,  and  charge  him  for  them  at  certain  prices — 
honest,  market  prices  for  his  necessities,  higher  prices  for 
harmless  luxuries,  and  excessive,  but  not  absolutely  prohibi- 
tory, prices  for  everything  likely  to  do  him  harm.  Credit 
him,  at  a  fixed  price,  for  every  day's  work  he  does,  and  for 
all  above  a  certain  easily  accomplished  task  in  a  day,  at  an 
increased  price,  so  that  his  reward  will  be  in  an  increasing 
ratio  to  his  perseverance.  Let  the  prices  of  provisions  be  so 
proportioned  to  the  price  of  task-work,  that  it  will  be  about 
as  easy  as  it  is  now  for  him  to  obtain  a  bare  subsistence. 
"When  he  has  no  food  and  shelter  due  to  him,  let  him  be  con- 
fined in  solitude,  or  otherwise  punished,  until  he  asks  for 
opportunity  to  earn  exemption  from  punishment  by  labour. 

When  he  desires  to  marry,  and  can  persuade  any  woman  to 
many  him,  let  the  two  be  dealt  with  as  in  partnership. 
Thus,  a  young  man  or  young  woman  will  be  attractive 
somewhat  in  proportion  to  his  or  her  reputation  for  industry 
and  providence.  Thus  industry  and  providence  will  become 
fashionable.  Oblige  them  to  purchase  food  for  their  children, 


250  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

and  let  them  have  the  benefit  of  their  children's  labour,  and 
they  will  be  careful  to  teach  their  children  to  avoid  waste, 
and  to  honour  labour.  Let  those  who  have  not  gained  credit 
while  hale  and  young,  sufficient  to  support  themselves  in 
comfort  when  prevented  by  age  or  infirmity  from  further 
labour,  be  supported  by  a  tax  upon  all  the  negroes  of  the  plan- 
tation, or  of  a  community.  Improvidence,  and  pretence  of 
inability  to  labour,  will  then  be  disgraceful. 

When  any  man  has  a  balance  to  his  credit  equal  to  his 
value  as  a  slave,  let  that  constitute  him  a  free  man.  It  will 
be  optional  with  him  and  his  employer  whether  he  shall 
continue  longer  in  the  relation  of  servant.  If  desirable  for  both 
that  he  should,  it  is  probable  that  he  will ;  for  unless  he  is 
honest,  prudent,  industrious,  and  discreet,  he  will  not  have 
acquired  the  means  of  purchasing  his  freedom. 

If  he  is  so,  he  will  remain  where  he  is,  unless  he  is  more 
wanted  elsewhere ;  a  fact  that  will  be  established  by  his  being 
called  away  by  higher  wages,  or  the  prospect  of  greater  ease 
and  comfort  elsewhere.  If  he  is  so  drawn  off,  it  is  better  for  all 
parties  concerned  that  he  should  go.  Better  for  his  old  mas- 
ter ;  for  he  would  not  refuse  him  sufficient  wages  to  induce 
him  to  stay,  unless  he  could  get  the  work  he  wanted  him  to 
do  done  cheaper  than  he  would  justly  do  it.  Poor  wages 
would  certainly,  in  the  long  run,  buy  but  poor  work ;  fair 
wages,  fair  work. 

"Of  course  there  will  be  exceptional  cases,  but  they  will 
always  operate  as  cautions  for  the  future,  not  only  to  the 
parties  suffering,  but  to  all  who  observe  them.  And  be  sure 
they  will  not  be  suffered,  among  ignorant  people,  to  be  lost. 
This  is  the  beneficent  function  of  gossip,  with  which  wise  and 
broad-working  minds  have  nothing  to  do,  such  not  being 
benefitted  by  the  iteration  of  the  lessons  of  life. 

Married  persons,  of  course,  can  only  become  free  together. 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  GEORGIA.          257 

In  the  appraisement  of  their  value,  let  that  of  their  young 
children  be  included,  so  that  they  cannot  be  parted  from  them ; 
but  with  regard  to  children  old  enough  to  earn  something 
more  than  their  living,  let  it  be  optional  what  they  do 
for  them. 

Such  a  system  would  simply  combine  the  commendable 
elements  of  the  emancipation  law  of  Cuba,*  and  those  of  the 
reformatory  punishment  system,  now  in  successful  operation 
in  some  of  the  British  penal  colonies,  with  a  few  practical 
modifications.  Further  modifications  would,  doubtless,  be 
needed,  which  any  man  who  has  had  much  practical  expe- 
rience in  dealing  with  staves  might  readily  suggest.  Much 
might  be  learned  from  the  experience  of  the  system  pursued 
in  the  penal  colonies,  some  account  of  which  may  be  seen  in 
the  report  of  the  Prisoners'  Aid  Society  of  New  York,  for 
1854,  or  in  a  previous  little  work  of  my  own.  I  have  here 
only  desired  to  suggest,  apropos  to  my  friend's  experience, 
the  practicability  of  providing  the  negroes  an  education  in 
essential  social  morality,  while  they  are  drawing  towards 
personal  freedom  ;  a  desideratum  with  those  who  do  not  con- 
sider Slavery  a  purely  and  eternally  desirable  thing  for  both 
slave  and  slave-master,  which  the  present  system  is  calcu- 
lated, as  far  as  possible,  in  every  direction  to  oppose. 

Education  in  theology  and  letters  could  be  easily  combined 
with  such  a  plan  as  I  have  hinted  at ;  or,  if  a  State  should 
wish  to  encourage  the  improvement  of  its  negro  constituent — 
as,  in  the  progress  of  enlightenment  and  Christianity,  may  be 
hoped  to  eventually  occur — a  simple  provision  of  the  law, 

*  In  Cuba  every  slave  has  the  privilege  of  emancipating  himself,  by  paying  a 
price  which  does  not  depend  upon  the  selfish  exactions  of  the  masters;  but  it  is 
either  a  fixed  price,  or  else  is  fixed,  in  each  case,  by  disinterested  appraisers.  The 
consequence  if,  that  emancipations  are  constantly  going  on,  and  the  free  people  of 
colour  are  becoming  enlightened,  cultivated,  and  wealthy.  In  no  part  of  the 
United  State-;  do  they  orcupy  the  high  social  position  which  they  eujoy  in  Cuba. 

VOL.  I.  8 


258  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

making  a  certain  standard  of  proficiency  the  condition  of 
political  freedom,  would  probably  create  a  natural  demand 
for  education,  which  commerce,  under  its  inexorable  higher- 
laws,  would  be  obliged  to  satisfy. 

I  do  not  think,  after  all  I  have  heard  to  favour  it,  that 
there  is  any  good  reason  to  consider  the  negro,  naturally  and 
essentially,  the  moral  inferior  of  the  white  ;  or,  that  if  he  is 
so,  it  is  in  those  elements  of  character  which  should  for  ever 
prevent  us  from  trusting  him  with  equal  social  munities  with 
ourselves. 

So  far  as  I  have  observed,  slaves  show  themselves  worthy 
of  trust  most,  where  their  masters  are  most  considerate  and 
liberal  towards  them.  Far  more  BO,  ior  instance,  on  the 
small  farms  of  North  Carolina  tiu*n  on  the  plantations  of 
Virginia  and  South  Carolina.  Mr.  X.'s  slaves  are  permitted 
to  purchase  fire-arms  and  ammunition,  and  to  keep  them  in 
their  cabins ;  and  his  wife  and  daughters  reside  with  him, 
among  them,  the  doors  of  the  house  never  locked,  or  windows 
closed,  perfectly  defenceless,  and  miles  distant  from  any  other 
white  family. 

Another  evidence  that  negroes,  even  in  slavery,  when 
trusted,  may  prove  wonderfully  reliable,  I  will  subjoin,  in  a 
letter  written  by  Mr.  Alexander  Smets,  of  Savannah,  to  a 
friend  in  New  York,  in  1853.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say, 
that  the  "  servants  "  spoken  of  were  negroes,  and  the  "  sus- 
picious characters,"  providentially  removed,  were  whites.  The 
letter  was  not  written  for  publication : — 

"  The  epidemic  which  spread  destruction  and  desolation  through  our 
city,  and  many  other  places  in  most  of  the  Southern  States,  was,  with  the 
exception  of  that  of  1820,  the  most  deadly  that  was  ever  known  here.  Its 
appearance  being  sudden,  the  inhabitants  were  seized  with  a  panic,  which 
caused  an  immediate  sauve  qui  peut  seldom  witnessed  before.  I  left,  or 
rather  fled,  for  the  sake  of  my  daughters,  to  Sparta,  Hancock  county. 
They  were  dreadfully  frightened. 

Of  a  population  of  fifteen  thousand,  six  thousand,  who  could  not  get 


SOUTH   CAROLINA   AND   GEORGIA.  259 

away,  remained,  nearly  all  of  whom  were  more  or  less  seized  with  the  pre- 
vailing disease.     The  negroes,  with  very  few  exceptions,  escaped. 

"  Amidst  the  desolation  and  gloom  pervading  the  deserted  streets,  there 
was  a  feature  that  showed  our  slaves  in  a  favourable  light.  There  were 
entire  blocks  of  houses,  which  were  either  entirely  deserted — the  owners  in 
many  instances  having,  in  their  flight,  forgotten  to  lock  them  up— or  left  in 
charge  of  the  servants.  A  finer  opportunity  for  plunder  could  not  be 
desired  by  thieves ;  and  yet  the  city  was  remarkable,  during  the  time,  for 
order  and  quietness.  There  were  scarcely  any  robberies  committed,  and 
as  regards  fires,  so  common  in  the  winter,  none !  Every  householder, 
whose  premises  had  escaped  the  fury  of  the  late  terrific  storm,  found  them 
in  the  same  condition  he  had  left  them.  Had  not  the  yellow  fever  scared 
away  or  killed  those  suspicious  characters,  whose  existence  is  a  problem, 
and  who  prowl  about  every  city,  I  fear  that  our  city  might  have  been  laid 
waste.  Of  the  whole  board  of  directors  of  five  banks,  three  or  four 
remained,  and  these  at  one  time  were  sick.  Several  of  the  clerks  were 
left,  each  in  the  possession  of  a  single  one.  For  several  weeks  it  was 
difficult  to  get  anything  to  eat ;  the  bakers  were  either  sick  or  dead.  The 
markets  closed,  no  countryman  dared  venture  himself  into  the  city  with 
the  usual  supplies  for  the  table,  and  the  packets  had  discontinued  their 
trips.  I  shall  stop,  otherwise  I  could  fill  a  volume  with  the  occurrences 
and  incidents  of  the  dismal  period  of  the  epidemic." 

On  most  of  the  large  rice  plantations  which  I  have  seen  in 
this  vicinity,  there  is  a  small  chapel,  which  the  negroes  call 
their  prayer-house.  The  owner  of  one  of  these  told  me  that, 
having  furnished  the  prayer-house  with  seats  having  a  back- 
rail,  his  negroes  petitioned  him  to  remove  it,  because  it  did 
not  leave  them  room  enough  to  pray.  It  was  explained  to 
me  that  it  is  their  custom,  in  social  worship,  to  work  them- 
selves up  to  a  great  pitch  of  excitement,  in  which  they  yell 
and  cry  aloud,  and  finally,  shriek  and  leap  up,  clapping  their 
hands  and  dancing,  as  it  is  done  at  heathen  festivals.  The 
back-rail  they  found  to  seriously  impede  this  exercise. 

Mr.  X.  told  me  that  he  had  endeavoured,  with  but  little 
success,  to  prevent  this  shouting  and  jumping  of  the  negroes 
at  their  meetings  on  his  plantation,  from  a  conviction  that 
there  was  not  the  slightest  element  of  religious  sentiment  in 
it.  He  considered  it  to  be  engaged  in  more  as  an  exciting 

s  2 


260  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

amusement  than  from  any  really  religious  impulse.  In  the 
town  churches,  except,  perhaps,  those  managed  and  conducted 
almost  exclusively  by  negroes,  the  slaves  are  said  to  commonly 
engage  in  religious  exercises  in  a  sober  and  decorous  manner  ; 
yet,  a  member  of  a  Presbyterian  church  in  a  Southern  city 
told  me,  that  he  had  seen  the  negroes  in  his  own  house  of 
worship,  during  "  a  season  of  revival,"  leap  from  their  seats, 
throw  their  arms  wildly  in  the  air,  shout  vehemently  and  un- 
intelligibly, cry,  groan,  rend  their  clothes,  and  fall  into  cata- 
leptic trances. 

On  almost  every  krge  plantation,  and  in  every  neighbour- 
hood of  small  ones,  there  is  one  man  who  has  come  to  be 
considered  the  head  or  pastor  of  the  local  church.  The  office 
among  the  negroes,  as  among  all  other  people,  confers  a 
certein  importance  and  power.  A  part  of  the  reverence 
attaching  to  the  duties  is  given  to  the  person  ;  vanity  and 
self-confidence  are  cultivated,  and  a  higher  ambition  aroused 
/than  can  usually  enter  the  mind  of  a  slave.  The  self-respect  of 
/  the  preacher  is  also  often  increased  by  the  consideration  in 
\  which  he  is  held  by  his  master,  as  well  as  by  his  fellows ; 
\  thus,  the  preachers  generally  have  an  air  of  superiority  to 
other  negroes  ;  they  acquire  a  remarkable  memory  of  words, 
phrases,  and  forms;  a  curious  sort  of  poetic  talent  is  de- 
veloped, and  a  habit  is  obtained  of  rhapsodizing  and  exciting 
furious  emotions,  to  a  great  degree  spurious  and  temporary, 
in  themselves  and  others,  through  the  imagination.  I  was 
introduced,  the  other  day,  to  a  preacher,  who  was  represented 
to  be  quite  distinguished  among  them.  I  took  his  hand, 
respectfully,  and  said  I  was  happy  to  meet  him.  He  seemed 
to  take  this  for  a  joke,  and  laughed  heartily.  He  was  a 
"  driver,"  and  my  friend  said — 

"  He  drives  the  negroes  at  the  cotton  all  the  week,  and 
Sundays  he  drives  them  at  the  Gospel — don't  you,  Ned  ?" 


SOUTH   CAROLINA    AND   GEORGIA.  261 

He  commenced  to  reply  in  some  scriptural  phrase,  soberly ; 
but  before  he  could  say  three  words,  began  to  laugh  again, 
and  reeled  off  like  a  drunken  man — entirely  overcome  with 
merriment.  He  recovered  himself  in  a  moment,  and  returned 
to  us. 

"  They  say  he  preaches  very  powerfully,  too." 
"  Yes,  massa  !  'kordin'  to  der  grace — yah  !  yah  !" 
And  he  staggered  off  again,  with  the  peculiar  hearty  negro 
guffaw.     My  friend's  tone  was,  I  suppose,  slightly  humorous, 
but  I  was  grave,  and  really  meant  to  treat  him  respectfully, 
wishing  to  draw  him  into  conversation ;  but  he  had  got  the 
impression  that  it  was  intended  to  make  fun  of  him,  and 
generously  assuming  a  merry  humour,  I  found  it  impossible 
to  get  a  serious  reply. 

A  majority  of  the  public  houses  of  worship  at  the  South 
are  small,  rude  structures  of  logs,  or  rough  boards,  built  by 
the  united  labour  or  contributions  of  the  people  of  a  large 
neighbourhood  or  district  of  country,  and  are  used  as  places 
of  assembly  for  all  public  purposes.  Few  of  them  have  any 
regular  clergymen,  but  preachers  of  different  denominations 
go  from  one  to  another,  sometimes  in  a  denned  rotation,  or 
"circuit,"  so  that  they  may  be  expected  at  each  of  their 
stations  at  regular  intervals.  A  late  report  of  the  Southern 
Aid  Society  states  that  hardly  one-fifth  of  the  preachers  are 
regularly  educated  for  their  business,  and  that  "you  would 
starve  a  host  of  them  if  you  debarred  them  from  seeking 
additional  support  for  their  families  by  worldly  occupation." 
In  one  presbytery  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  which  is, 
perhaps,  the  richest,  and  includes  the  most  educated  body  of 
people  of  all  the  Southern  Churches,  there  are  twenty-one 
ministers  whose  wages  are  not  over  two  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  each.  The  proportion  of  ministers,  of  all  sorts,  to 
people,  is  estimated  at  one  to  thirteen  hundred.  (In  the  Free 


262  COTTON    AND    SLAVEBY. 

States  it  is  estimated  at  one  to  nine  hundred.)  The  report 
of  this  Society  also  states,  that  "  within  the  limits  of  the 
United  States  religious  destitution  lies  comparatively  at  the 
South  and  South-west ;  and  that  from  the  first  settlement  of 
the  country  the  North  has  preserved  a  decided  religious 
superiority  over  the  South,  especially  in  three  important 
particulars :  in  ample  supply  of  Christian  institutions ;  ex- 
tensive supply  of  Christian  truth  ;  and  thorough  Christian 
regimen,  both  in  the  Church  and  in  the  community."  It  is 
added  that,  "while  the  South-western  States  have  always 
needed  a  stronger  arm  of  the  Christian  ministry  to  raise  them 
up  toward  a  Christian  equality  with  their  Northern  brethren, 
their  supply  in  this  respect  has  always  been  decidedly  in- 
ferior." The  reason  of  this  is  the  same  with  that  which  ex- 
plains the  general  ignorance  of  the  people  of  the  South :  The 
effect  of  Slavery  in  preventing  social  association  of  the  whites, 
and  in  encouraging  vagabond  and  improvident  habits  of  life 
among  the  poor. 

The  two  largest  denominations  of  Christians  at  the  South 
are  the  Methodists  and  Baptists — the  last  having  a  numerical 
superiority.  There  are  some  subdivisions  of  each,  and  of  the 
Baptists  especially,  the  nature  of  which  I  do  not  understand. 
Two  grand  divisions  of  the  Baptists  are  known  as  the  Hard 
Shells  and  the  Soft  Shells.  There  is  an  intense  rivalry  and 
jealousy  among  these  various  sects  and  sub-sects,  and  the 
controversy  between  them  is  carried  on  with  a  bitterness  and 
persistence  exceeding  anything  which  I  have  known  at  the 
North,  and  in  a  manner  which  curiously  indicates  how  the 
terms  Christianity,  piety,  etc.,  are  misapplied  to  partisanship 
and  conditions  of  the  imagination . 

A  general  want  of  essential  reverence  of  character  seems  to 
be  evidenced  in  the  frequent  familiar  and  public  use  of  expres- 
sions of  rare  reverence,  and  in  high-coloured  descriptions  of 


SOUTH   CAROLINA   AND   GEORGIA.  263 

personal  feelings  and  sentiments,  which,  if  actual,  can  only  be 
among  a  man's  dearest,  most  interior  and  secret,  stillest,  and 
most  uncommunicable  experiences.  Men  talk  in  public  places, 
in  the  churches,  and  in  bar-rooms,  in  the  stage-coach,  and  at 
the  fireside,  of  their  personal  communions  with  the  Deity,  and 
of  the  mutations  of  their  harmony  with  His  Spirit,  just  as  they 
do  about  their  family  and  business  matters.  The  familar  use 
of  Scripture  expressions  by  the  negroes,  I  have  already  indi- 
cated. This  is  not  confined  to  them.  A  dram-seller  adver- 
tises thus : — 

" '  FAITH  WITHOUT  WORKS  IS  DEAD.' 

IN  order  to  engage  in  a  more  '  honorable  '  business,  I  offer  for  sale,  cheap 
for  cash,  my  stock  of 

LIQUORS,  BAR-FIXTURES,  BILLIARD  TABLE,  &c.,  &c. 
If  not  sold  privatoly,  by  the  20th  day  of  May,  I  will  sell  the  same  at  public 
auction.     •  Shew  me  thy  faith  without  thy  works,  and  I  will  shew  thee  my 
faith  by  my  works.'  E.  KEYSER." 

At  a  Sunday  dinner-table,  at  a  village  inn  in  Virginia,  two 
or  three  men  had  taken  seats  with  me,  who  had,  as  they  said, 
"  been  to  the  preachin'."  A  child  had  been  baptized,  and  the 
discourse  had  been  a  defence  of  infant  baptism. 

"  I'm  damned,"  said  one,  "  ef  he  teched  on  the  primary 
significance  of  baptism,  at  all — buryin'  with  Jesus." 

"  They  wus  the  weakest  arguments  for  sprinklin'  that  ever 
I  heerd,"  said  another — a  hot,  red-faced,  corpulent  man — 
"  and  his  sermon  was  two  hours  long,  for  when  he  stopped  I 
looked  at  my  watch.  I  thought  it  should  be  a  lesson  to  me, 
for  I  couldn't  help  going  to  sleep.  Says  I  to  Uncle  John, 
says  I — he  sot  next  to  me,  and  I  whispered  to  him — says  I, 
'  When  he  gits  to  Bunker  Hill,  you  wake  me  up,'  for  I  see  he 
was  bound  to  go  clean  back  to  the  beginnin'  of  things." 

"  Uncle  John  is  an  Episcopalian,  aint  he  ?" 

"Yes." 


264  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

"  Well,  there  aint  no  religion  in  that,  no  how." 

"  No,  there  aint." 

"  Well  now,  you  wouldn't  think  it,  but  I've  studied  into 
religion  a  heap  in  my  life." 

"  Don't  seem  to  have  done  you  much  good." 

"  No  it  aint,  not  yet,  but  I've  studied  into  it,  and  I  know 
what  it  is." 

"  There  aint  but  one  way,  Benny." 

"  I  know  it." 

"  Eepent  of  your  sins,  and  believe  in  Christ,  and  be 
immersed — that's  all." 

"I  know  it." 

"  Well,  I  hope  the  Lord'll  bring  you  to  it,  'fore  you  die." 

"  Eeckon  he  will — hope  so,  sure." 

"  You  wouldn't  hardly  think  that  fat  man  was  a  preacher 
himself,  would  you  ?"  said  the  landlady  to  me,  after  they  left. 

"  Certainly  not." 

"  He  is,  though,  but  I  don't  think  much  of  that  sort ;"  and 
the  landlady  immediately  began  to  describe  to  me  the  religious 
history  of  the  neighbourhood.  It  was  some  different  here,  she 
said  she  reckoned,  in  reply  to  a  remark  of  mine,  from  what  it 
was  t  at  the  North.  Most  respectable  people  became  pious 
here  before  they  got  to  be  very  old,  especially  ladies.  Young 
ladies  were  always  gay  and  went  to  balls  till  they  were  near 
twenty  years  old,  but  from  eighteen  to  twenty-five  they  gene- 
rally got  religion,  and  then  they  stopped  right  short,  and 
never  danced  or  carried  on  any  after  that.  Sometimes  it 
wasn't  till  after  they  were  married,  but  there  weren't  many 
ladies  who  had  children  that  warn't  pious.  She  herself  was  an 
exception,  for  she  had  three  children  and  had  not  got  religion 
yet ;  sometimes  she  was  frightened  to  think  how  old  she  was 
— her  children  growing  up  about  her;  but  she  did  so  like 
dancing — she  hoped  her  turn  would  come — she  knew  it  would 


SOUTH   CAROLINA   AND    GEORGIA.  265 

—she  had  a  pious  and  praying  mother,  and  she  reckoned  her 
prayers  must  be  heard,  and  so  on. 

The  religious  service  which  I  am  ahout  to  describe,  was 
held  in  a  less  than  usually  rude  meeting-house,  the  boards  by 
which  it  was  enclosed  being  planed,  the  windows  glazed,  and 
the  seats  for  the  white  people  provided  with  backs.  It  stood 
in  a  small  clearing  of  the  woods,  and  there  was  no  habitation 
within  two  miles  of  it.  "When  I  reached  it  with  my  friends, 
the  services  had  already  commenced.  Fastened  to  trees,  in  a 
circle  about  the  house,  there  were  many  saddled  horses  and 
mules,  and  a  few  attached  to  carts  or  waggons.  There  were 
two  smouldering  camp-fires,  around  which  sat  circles  of 
negroes  and  white  boys,  roasting  potatoes  in  the  ashes. 

In  the  house  were  some  fifty  white  people,  generally 
dressed  in  homespun,  and  of  the  class  called  "crackers," 
though  I  was  told  that  some  of  them  owned  a  good  many 
negroes,  and  were  by  no  means  so  poor  as  their  appearance 
indicated.  About  one-third  of  the  house,  at  the  end  opposite 
the  desk,  was  covered  by  a  gallery  or  cock-loft,  under  and  in 
which,  distinctly  separated  from  the  whites,  was  a  dense  body 
of  negroes ;  the  men  on  one  side,  the  women  on  another. 
The  whites  were  seated  promiscuously  in  the  body  of  the 
house.  The  negroes  present  outnumbered  the  whites,  but 
the  exercises  at  this  time  seemed  to  have  no  reference  to 
them ;  there  were  many  more  waiting  about  the  doors  out- 
side, and  they  were  expecting  to  enjoy  a  meeting  to  them- 
selves, after  the  whites  had  left  the  house.  They  were  gene- 
rally neatly  dressed,  more  so  than  the  majority  of  the  whites 
present,  but  in  a  distinctly  plantation  or  slave  style.  A  few 
of  them  wore  somewhat  expensive  articles,  evidently  of  their 
own  selection  and  purchase;  but  I  observed,  with  some  sur- 
prise, that  not  one  of  the  women  had  a  bonnet  upon  her  heat! , 
all  wearing  handkerchiefs,  generally  of  gay  patterns,  and 


266  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

becomingly  arranged.  I  inquired  if  this  was  entirely  a 
matter  of  taste,  and  was  told  that  it,  no  doubt,  was  generally 
so,  though  the  masters  would  not  probably  allow  them  to 
wear  bonnets,  if  they  should  be  disposed  to,  and  should  pur- 
chase them  themselves,  as  it  would  be  thought  presuming. 
In  the  towns,  the  coloured  women  often,  but  not  generally, 
wear  bonnets. 

During  all  the  exercises,  people  of  both  classes  were 
frequently  going  out  and  coming  in ;  the  women  had  brought 
their  babies  with  them,  and  these  made  much  disturbance. 
A  negro  girl  would  sometimes  come  forward  to  take  a  child 
out ;  perhaps  the  child  would  prefer  not  to  be  taken  out,  and 
would  make  loud  and  angry  objections  ;  it  would  then  be  fed. 
Several  were  allowed  to  crawl  about  the  floor,  carrying  hand- 
Ms  of  corn-bread  and  roasted  potatoes  about  with  them  ;  one 
had  a  fancy  to  enter  the  pulpit ;  which  it  succeeded  in  climb- 
ing into  three  tunes,  and  was  as  often  taken  away,  in  spite  of 
loud  and  tearful  expostulations,  by  its  father.  Dogs  were  not 
excluded  ;  and  outside,  the  doors  and  windows  all  being  open, 
there  was  much  neighing  and  braying,  unused  as  were  the 
mules  and  horses  to  see  so  many  of  their  kind  assembled. 

The  preliminary  devotional  exercises — a  Scripture  reading, 
singing,  and  painfully  irreverential  and  meaningless  harangues 
nominally  addressed  to  the  Deity,  but  really  to  the  audience 
— being  concluded,  the  sermon  was  commenced  by  reading  a 
text,  with  which,  however,  it  had,  so  far  as  I  could  discover, 
no  further  association.  Without  often  being  violent  in  his 
manner,  the  speaker  nearly  all  the  time  cried  aloud  at  the 
utmost  stretch  of  his  voice,  as  if  calling  to  some  one  a  long 
distance  off;  as  his  discourse  was  extemporaneous,  however, 
he  sometimes  returned  with  curious  effect  to  his  natural  con- 
versational tone ;  and  as  he  was  gifted  with  a  strong  imagi- 
nation, and  possessed  of  a  good  deal  of  dramatic  power,  lie 


SOUTH   CAROLINA   AND   GEORGIA.  267 

kept  the  attention  of  the  people  very  well.  There  was  no 
argument  upon  any  point  that  the  congregation  were  likely 
to  have  much  difference  of  opinion  upon,  nor  any  special  con- 
nection between  one  sentence  and  another ;  yet  there  was  a 
constant,  sly,  sectarian  skirmishing,  and  a  frequently  recur- 
ring cannonade  upon  French  infidelity  and  socialism,  and 
several  crushing  charges  upon  Fourier,  the  Pope  of  Kome, 
Tom  Paine,.  Voltaire,  "  Roosu,"  and  Joe  Smith.  The  audience 
were  frequently  reminded  that  the  preacher  did  not  want  their 
attention  for  any  purpose  of  his  own ;  hut  that  he  demanded 
a  respectful  hearing  as  "  the  ambassador  of  Christ."  He  had 
the  habit  of  frequently  repeating  a  phrase,  or  of  bringing  for- 
ward the  same  idea  in  a  slightly  different  form,  a  great  many 
times.  The  following  passage,  of  which  I  took  notes,  presents 
an  example  of  this,  followed  by  one  of  the  best  instances  ol 
his  dramatic  talent  that  occurred.  He  was  leaning  far  over 
the  desk,  with  his  arm  stretched  forward,  gesticulating  vio- 
lently, yelling  at  the  highest  key,  and  catching  breath  with  an 
effort : — 

"  A — ah  !  why  don't  you  come  to  Christ  ?  ah  !  what's  the 
reason  ?  ah  !  Is  it  because  he  was  of  lowly  birth  ?  ah  !  Is 
that  it  ?  Is  it  because  he  was  born  in  a  manger  ?  ah  !  Is  it 
because  he  was  of  a  humble  origin  ?  ah  !  Is  it  because  he  was 
lowly  born?  a-ha  !  Is  it  because,  ah  ! — is  it  because,  ah ! — 
because  he  was  called  a  Nazarene  ?  Is  it  because  he  was  born 
in  a  stable  ? — or  is  it  because — because  he  was  of  humble 

origin  ?     Or  is  it — is  it  because" He  drew  back,  and  after  a 

moment's  silence  put  his  hand  to  his  chin,  and  began  walking 
up  and  down  the  platform  of  the  pulpit,  soliloquizing.  "It 
can't  be  -  it  can't  be—  ?"  Then  lifting  his  eyes  and  gradually 
turning  towards  the  audience,  while  he  continued  to  speak  in 
a  low,  thoughtful  tone :  "  Perhaps  you  don't  like  the  messen- 
ger— is  that  the  reason  ?  I'm  the  ambassador  of  the  great 


268  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

and  glorious  King;  it's  his  invitation,  'taint  mine.  You 
musn't  mind  me.  I  ain't  no  account.  Suppose  a  ragged, 
insignificant  little  boy  should  come  running  in  here  and  tell 
you,  '  Mister,  your  house's  a-fire  !'  would  you  mind  the  ragged, 
insignificant  little  boy,  and  refuse  to  listen  to  him,  because  he 
didn't  look  respectable  ?" 

At  the  end  of  the  sermon  he  stepped  down  from  the  pulpit, 
and,  crossing  the  house  towards  the  negroes,  said,  quietly,  as 
he  walked,  "  I  take  great  interest  in  the  poor  blacks ;  and 
this  evening  I  am  going  to  hold  a  meeting  specially  for  you." 
With  this  he  turned  back,  and  without  re-entering  the  pulpit, 
but  strolling  up  and  down  before  it,  read  a  hymn,  at  the  con- 
'  elusion  of  which,  he  laid  his  book  down,  and  speaking  for  a 
moment  with  natural  emphasis,  said — 

"  I  don't  want  to  create  a  tumultuous  scene,  now  ; — that 
isn't  my  intention.  I  don't  want  to  make  an  excitement, — 
that  aint  what  I  want, — but  I  feel  that  there's  some  here  that 
I  may  never  see  again,  ah  !  and,  as  I  may  never  have  another 
opportunity,  I  feel  it  my  duty  as  an  ambassador  of  Jesus 

Christ,  ah  !  before  I  go "     By  this  time  he  had  returned 

to  the  high  key  and  whining  yell.  Exactly  what  he  felt  it 
his  duty  to  do,  I  did  not  understand ;  but  evidently  to  employ 
some  more  powerful  agency  of  awakening  than  arguments 
and  appeals  to  the  understanding ;  and,  before  I  could  con- 
jecture, in  the  least,  of  what  sort  this  was  to  be,  while  he  was 
yet  speaking  calmly,  deprecating  excitement,  my  attention 
was  attracted  to  several  men,  who  had  previously  appeared 
sleepy  and  indifferent,  but  who  now  suddenly  began  to  sigh, 
raise  their  heads,  and  shed  tears — some  standing  up,  so  that 
they  might  be  observed  in  doing  this  by  the  whole  con- 
gregation— the  tears  running  down  their  noses  without  any 
interruption.  The  speaker,  presently,  was  crying  aloud,  with  a 
mournful,  distressed,  beseeching  shriek,  as  if  he  were  himself 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  GEORGIA.  269 

suffering  torture  :  "  Oh,  any  of  you  fond  parents,  who  know 
that  any  of  your  dear,  sweet,  little  ones  may  be,  oh !  at  any 
moment  snatched  right  away  from  your  bosom,  and  cast  into 
hell  fire,  oh  !  there  to  suffer  torment  for  ever  and  ever,  and 
ever  and  ever — Oh  !  come  out  here  and  help  us  pray  for  them  ! 
Oh,  any  of  you  wives  that  has  got  an  unconverted  husband, 
that  won't  go  along  with  you  to  eternal  glory,  but  is  set  upon 
being  separated  from  you,  oh !  and  taking  up  his  bed  in  hell 
— Oh  J  I  call  upon  you,  if  you  love  him,  now  to  come  out 
here  and  jine  us  in  praying  for  him.  Oh,  if  there's,  a  husband 
here,  whose  wife  is  still  in  the  bond  of  iniquity,"  etc.,  through 
a  long  category. 

It  was  immediately  evident  that  a  large  part  of  the  audience, 
understood  his  wish  to  be  the  reverse  of  what  he  had  declared, 
and  considered  themselves  called  upon  to  assist  him ;  and  it 
was  astonishing  to  see  with  what  readiness  the  faces  of  those 
who,  up  to  the  moment  he  gave  the  signal,  had  appeared 
drowsy  and  stupid,  were  made  to  express  distressing  excite- 
ment, sighing,  groaning,  and  weeping.  Eising  in  their  seats, 
and  walking  up  to  the  pulpit,  they  grasped  each  other's  hands 
agonizingly,  and  remained,  some  kneeling,  others  standing, 
with  their  faces  towards  the  remainder  of  the  assembly. 
There  was  great  confusion  and  tumult,  and  the  poor  children, 
evidently  impressed  by  the  terrified  tone  of  the  howling 
preacher,  with  the  expectation  of  some  immediately  impending 
calamity,  shrieked,  and  ran  hither  and  thither,  till  negro 
girls  came  forward,  laughing  at  the  imposition,  and  carried 
them  out. 

At  length,  when  some  twenty  had  gathered  around  the 
preacher,  and  it  became  evident  that  no  more  could  be  drawn 
out,  he  stopped  a  moment  for  breath,  and  then  repeated  a 
verse  of  a  hymn,  which  being  sung,  he  again  commenced  to 
cry  aloud,  calling  now  upon  all  the  unconverted,  who  were 


270  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

willing  to  be  saved,  to  kneel.  A  few  did  so,  and  another 
verse  was  sung,  followed  by  another  more  fervent  exhortation. 
So  it  went  on ;  at  each  verse  his  entreaties,  warnings,  and 
threats,  and  the  responsive  groans,  sobs,  and  ejaculations  of 
his  coterie  grew  louder  and  stronger.  Those  who  refused  to 
kneel  were  addressed  as  standing  on  the  brink  of  the  infernal 
pit,  into  which  a  diabolical  divinity  was  momentarily  on  the 
point  of  satisfying  the  necessities  of  his  character  by  hurling 
them  off. 

All  this  time  about  a  dozen  of  the  audience  remained 
standing,  many  were  kneeling,  and  the  larger  part  had  taken 
their  seats — all  having  risen  at  the  commencement  of  the 
,  singing.  Those  who  continued  standing  were  mainly  wild- 
looking  young  fellows,  who  glanced  with  smiles  at  one 
another,  as  if  they  needed  encouragement  to  brazen  it  out. 
A  few  young  women  were  evidently  fearfully  excited,  and 
perceptibly  trembled,  but  for  some  reasoD  dared  not  kneel,  or 
•compromise,  by  sitting.  One  of  these,  a  good-looking  and 
gaily-dressed  girl,  stood  near,  and  directly  before  the  preacher, 
her  lips  compressed,  and  her  eyes  fixed  fiercely  and  defiantly 
upon  him.  He  for  some  time  concentrated  his  force  upon 
her  ;  but  she  was  too  strong  for  him,  he  could  not  bring  her 
down.  At  length,  shaking  his  finger  toward  her,  with  a 
terrible  expression,  as  if  he  had  the  power,  and  did  not  lack 
the  inclination,  to  damn  her  for  her  resistance  to  his  will,  he 
said:  "I  tell  you  this  is  the  last  call!"  She  bit  her  lips, 
and  turned  paler,  but  still  stood  erect,  and  defiant  of  the 
immense  magnetism  concentrated  upon  her ;  and  he  gave  it 
up  himself,  quite  exhausted  with  the  effort. 

The  last  verse  of  the  hymn  was  sung.  A  comparatively 
quiet  and  sober  repetition  of  Scripture  phrases,  strung  to- 
gether heterogeneously  and  without  meaning,  in  the  form  of 
prayer,  followed,  a  benediction  was  pronounced,  and  in  five 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  GEORGIA.          271 

minutes  all  the  people  were  out  of  the  door,  with  no  trace  of 
the  previous  excitement  left,  but  most  of  the  men  talking 
eagerly  of  the  price  of  cotton,  and  negroes,  and  other 
news. 

The  negroes  kept  their  place  during  all  of  the  tumult ; 
there  may  have  been  a  sympathetic  groan  or  exclamation 
uttered  by  one  or  two  of  them,  but  generally  they  expressed 
only  the  interest  of  curiosity  in  the  proceedings,  such  as 
Europeans  might  at  a  performance  of  the  dancing  dervishes, 
an  Indian  pow-wow,  or  an  exhibition  of  "  psychological "  or 
" spiritual" .  phenomena,  making  it  very  evident  that  the 
emotion  of  the  performers  was  optionally  engaged  in,  as  an 
appropriate  part  of  divine  service.  There  was  generally  a 
self-satisfied  smile  upon  their  faces ;  and  I  have  no  doubt 
they  felt  that  they  could  do  it  with  a  good  deal  more  energy 
and  abandon,  if  they  were  called  upon.  I  did  not  wish  to 
detain  my  companion  to  witness  how  they  succeeded,  when 
their  turn  came ;  and  I  can  only  judge  from  the  fact,  that 
those  I  saw  the  next  morning  were  so  hoarse  Jbhat  they  could 
scarcely  speak,  that  the  religious  exercises  they  most  enjoy 
are  rather  hard  upon  the  lungs,  whatever  their  effect  may  be 
upon  the  soul. 


272  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 


CHAPTEE  VII. 

THE   SOUTH-WEST,    ALABAMA   AND    MISSISSIPPI. 

Mobile. — I  left  Savannah  for  the  West,  by  the  Macon 
road ;  the  train  started  punctually  to  a  second,  at  its  adver- 
tised time ;  the  speed  was  not  great,  but  regular,  and  less 
time  was  lost  unnecessarily,  at  way-stations,  than  usually  on 
our  Northern  roads. 

I  have  travelled  more  than  five  hundred  miles  on  the 
Georgia  roads,  and  I  am  glad  to  say  that  all  of  them  seem 
to  be  exceedingly  well  managed.  The  speed  upon  them  is 
not  generally  more  than  from  fifteen  to  twenty  miles  an 
hour ;  but  it  is  made,  as  advertised,  with  considerable  punc- 
tuality. The  roads  are  admirably  engineered  and  constructed, 
and  their  equipment  will  compare  favourably  with  that  of  any 
other  roads  on  the  continent.  There  are  now  upwards 
of  twelve  hundred  miles  of  railroad  in  the  State,  and  more 
building.  The  Savannah  and  Macon  line — the  first  built 
— was  commenced  in  1834.  The  increased  commerce 
of  the  city  of  Savannah,  which  followed  its  completion, 
stimulated  many  other  railroad  enterprises,  not  only  within 
the  State,  but  elsewhere  at  the  South,  particularly  in  South 
Carolina.  Many  of  these  were  rashly  pushed  forward  by  men 
of  no  experience,  and  but  little  commercial  judgment ;  the 
roads  were  injudiciously  laid  out,  and  have  been  badly 
managed,  and,  of  course,  have  occasioned  disastrous  losses. 
The  Sivannah  and  Macon  road  has,  however,  been  very  sue- 


ALABAMA   AND   MISSISSIPPI.  273 

cessful.  The  receipts  are  now  over  g  1,000,000  annually; 
the  road  is  well  stocked,  is  out  of  debt,  and  its  business  is 
constantly  increasing ;  the  stock  is  above  par,  and  the  stock- 
holders are  receiving  eight  per  cent,  dividends,  with  a  hand- 
some surplus  on  hand.  It  has  been  always,  in  a  great 
degree,  under  the  management  of  Northern  men  —  was 
engineered,  and  is  still  worked  chiefly  by  Northern  men,  and 
a  large  amount  of  its  stock  is  owned  at  the  North.  I  am  told 
that  most  of  the  mechanics,  and  of  the  successful  merchants 
and  tradesmen  of  Savannah  came  originally  from  the  North, 
or  are  the  sons  of  Northern  men. 

Partly  by  rail  and  partly  by  rapid  stage-coaching  (the 
coaches,  horses,  and  drivers  again  from  the  North),  I  crossed 
the  State  in  about  twenty-four  hours.  The  railroad  is  since 
entirely  completed  from  Savannah  to  Montgomery,  in  Ala- 
bama, and  is  being  extended  slowly  towards  the  Mississippi ; 
of  course  with  the  expectation  that  it  will  eventually  reach 
the  Pacific,  and  thus  make  Savannah  "  the  gate  to  the  com- 
merce of  the  world."  Ship-masters  will  hope  that,  when 
either  it  or  its  rival  in  South  Carolina  has  secured  that  honour, 
they  will  succeed,  better  than  they  yet  have  done,  in  remov- 
ing the  bars,  physical  and  legal,  by  which  commerce  is  now 
annoyed  in  its  endeavours  to  serve  them. 

At  Columbus,  I  spent  several  days.  It  is  the  largest  manu- 
facturing town,  south  of  Kichmond,  in  the  Slave  States.  It 
is  situated  at  the  Falls,  and  the  head  of  steamboat  navigation 
of  the  Chatahooche,  the  western  boundary  of  Georgia.  The 
water-power  is  sufficient  to  drive  two  hundred  thousand 
spindles,  with  a  proportionate  number  of  looms.  There  are, 
probably,  at  present  from  fifteen  to  twenty  thousand  spindles 
running.  The  operatives  in  the  cotton-mills  are  said  to  be 
mainly  "  Cracker  girls  "  (poor  whites  from  the  country),  who 
earn,  in  good  times,  by  piece-work,  from  g  8  to  #  12  a  month. 

VOL.  I.  T 


274  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

Tliere  are,  besides  the  cotton-mills,  one  woollen-mill,  one 
paper-mill,  a  foundry,  a  cotton-gin  factory,  a  machine-shop, 
etc.  The  labourers  in  all  these  are  mainly  whites,  and  they 
are  in  such  a  condition  that,  if  temporarily  thrown  out  of 
employment,  great  numbers  of  them  are  at  once  reduced  to  a 
state  of  destitution,  and  are  dependent  upon  credit  or  charity 
lor  their  daily  food.  Public  entertainments  were  being 
held  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  the  profits  to  be  applied 
to  the  relief  of  operatives  in  mills  which  had  been  stopped 
by  the  effects  of  a  late  flood  of  the  river.  Yet  Slavery  is 
constantly  boasted  to  be  a  perfect  safeguard  against  such 
distress. 

1  had  seen  in  no  place,  since  I  left  Washington,  so  much 
gambling,  intoxication,  and  cruel  treatment  of  servants  in 
public,  as  in  Columbus.  This,  possibly,  was  accidental ;  but 
I  must  caution  persons,  travelling  for  health  or  pleasure,  to 
avoid  stopping  in  the  town.  The  hotel  in  which  I  lodged 
was  disgustingly  dirty ;  the  table  revolting ;  the  waiters 
stupid,  inattentive,  and  annoying.  It  was  the  stage-house ; 
but  I  was  informed  that  the  other  public-house  was  no  better. 
There  are  very  good  inns  at  Macon,  and  at  Montgomery,  Ala- 
bama; and  it  will  be  best  for  an  invalid  proceeding  from 
Savannah  westward,  if  possible,  not  to  spend  a  night  between 
these  towns. 

A  day's  journey  took  me  from  Columbus,  through  a  hilly 
wilderness,  with  a  few  dreary  villages,  and  many  isolated 
cotton  farms,  with  comfortless  habitations  for  black  and  white 
upon  them,  to  Montgomery,  the  capital  of  Alabama. 

Montgomery  is  a  prosperous  town,  with  pleasant  suburbs, 
and  a  remarkably  enterprising  population,  among  which  there 
is  a  considerable  proportion  of  Northern  and  foreign-born 
business-men  and  mechanics. 

I  spent  a  week  here,   and  then  left  for  Mobile,  on  the 


275 

steamboat  Fashion,  a  clean  and  well-ordered  boat,  with 
polite  and  obliging  officers.  We  were  two  days  and  a  half 
making  the  passage,  the  boat  stopping  at  almost  every  bluff 
and  landing  to  take  on  cotton,  until  she  had  a  freight  of 
nineteen  hundred  bales,  which  was  built  up  on  the  guards, 
seven  or  eight  tiers  in  height,  and  until  it  reached  the  hurri- 
cane deck.  The  boat  was  thus  brought  so  deep  that  her 
guards  were  in  the  water,  and  the  ripple  of  the  river  con- 
stantly washed  over  them.  There  are  two  hundred  landings 
on  the  Alabama  river,  and  three  hundred  on  the  Bigby 
(Tombeckbee  of  the  geographers),  at  which  the  boats  ad- 
vertise to  call,  if  required,  for  passengers  or  freight.  This, 
of  course,  makes  the  passage  exceedingly  tedious.  The  so- 
called  landings,  however,  have  not  in  many  cases  the  slightest 
artificial  accommodations  for  the  purpose  of  a  lauding.  The 
boat's  hawser,  if  used,  is  made  fast  to  a  living  tree  ;  there  is 
not  a  sign  of  a  wharf,  often  no  house  in  sight,  and  sometimes 
no  distinct  road. 

The  principal  town  at  which  we  landed  was  Selma,  a  pleasant 
village,  in  one  corner  of  which  I  came  upon  a  tall,  ill-pro- 
portioned, broken-windowed  brick  barrack ;  it  had  no  grounds 
about  it,  was  close  upon  the  highway,  was  in  every  way  dirty, 
neglected,  and  forlorn  in  expression.  I  inquired  what  it  was, 
and  was  answered,  the  "Young  Ladies'  College."  There 
were  a  number  of  pretty  private  gardens  in  the  town,  in 
which  I  noticed  several  evergreen  oaks,  the  first  I  had  seen 
since  leaving  Savannah.  . 

At  Claiborne,  another  village  upon  the  river,  we  landed  at 
nine  o'clock  on  a  Sunday  night.  It  is  situated  upon  a  bluff, 
a  hundred  and  fifty  feet  high,  with  a  nearly  perpendicular 
bank,  upon  the  river.  The  boat  came  to  the  shore  at  the 
foot  of  a  plank  slide- way,  down  which  cotton  was  sent  to  it, 
from  a  warehouse  at  the  top. 

T  2 


'  276  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

There  was  something  truly  Western  in  the  direct,  reckless 
way  in  which  the  boat  was  loaded.  A  strong  gang-plank 
being  placed  at  right  angles  to  the  slide-way,  a  bale  of  cotton 
was  let  slide  from  the  top,  and,  coming  down  with  fearful 
velocity,  on  striking  the  gang-plank,  it  would  rebound  up  and 
out  on  to  the  boat,  against  a  barricade  of  bales  previously  ar- 
ranged to  receive  it.  The  moment  it  struck  this  barricade, 
it  would  be  dashed  at  by  two  or  three  men,  and  jerked  out  of 
the  way,  and  others  would  roll  it  to  its  place  for  the  voyage, 
on  the  tiers  aft.  The  mate,  standing  near  the  bottom  of  the 
slide,  as  soon  as  the  men  had  removed  one  bale  to  what  he 
thought  a  safe  distance,  would  shout  to  those  aloft,  and  down 
would  come  another.  Not  unfrequently,  a  bale  would  not 
strike  fairly  on  its  end,  and  would  rebound  off,  diagonally, 
overboard ;  or  would  be  thrown  up  with  such  force  as  to 
go  over  the  barricade,  breaking  stanchions  and  railings,  and 
scattering  the  passengers  on  the  berth  deck.  Negro  hands 
were  sent  to  the  top  of  the  bank,  to  roll  the  bales  to  the  side, 
and  Irishmen  were  kept  below  to  remove  them,  and  stow 
them.  On  asking  the  mate  (with  some  surmisings)  the  rea- 
son of  this  arrangement,  he  said — 

"  The  niggers  are  worth  too  much  to  be  risked  here  ;  if 
the  Paddies  are  knocked  overboard,  or  get  their  backs  broke, 
nobody  loses  anything !" 

There  were  about  one  hundred  passengers  on  the  Fashion, 
besides  a  number  of  poor  people  and  negroes  on  the  lower 
deck.  They  were,  t generally,  cotton-planters,  going  ,to 
Mobile  on  business,  or  emigrants  bound  to  Texas  or 
Arkansas.  They  were  usually  well  dressed,  but  were  a 
rough,  coarse  style  of  people,  drinking  a  great  deal,  and 
most  of  the  time  under  a  little  alcoholic  excitement.  Not 
sociable,  except  when  the  topics  of  cotton,  land,  and  negroes, 
•  were  started ;  interested,  however,  in  talk  about  theatres  and 


ALABAMA    AND   MISSISSIPPI.  277 

the  turf ;  very  profane ;  often  showing  the  handles  of  con- 
cealed weapons  about  their  persons,  but  not  quarrelsome, 
avoiding  disputes  and  altercations,  and  respectful  to  one 
another  in  forms  of  words  ;  very  ill-informed,  except  on  plan- 
tation business;  their  language  ungrammatical,  idiomatic, 
and  extravagant.  Their  grand  characteristics — simplicity  of 
motives,  vague,  shallow,  and  purely  objective  habits  of 
thought ;  and  bold,  self-reliant  movement. 

With  all  their  individual  independence,  I  soon  could  per- 
ceive a  very  great  homogeneousness  of  character,  by  which 
they  were  distinguishable  from  any  other  people  with  whom 
I  had  before  been  thrown  in  contact ;  and  I  began  to  study 
it  with  interest,  as  the  Anglo-Saxon  development  of  the 
South-west. 

I  found  that,  more  than  any  people  I  had  ever  seen,  they 
were  unrateable  by  dress,  taste,  forms,  and  expenditures.  I 
was  perplexed  by  finding,  apparently  united  in  the  same  in- 
dividual, the  self-possession,  confidence,  and  the  use  of  ex- 
pressions of  deference,  of  the  well-equipped  gentleman,  and 
the  coarseness  and  low  tastes  of  the  uncivilized  boor — frank- 
ness and  reserve,  recklessness  and  self-restraint,  extravagance, 
and  penuriousncss. 

There  was  one  man,  who  "  lived,  when  he  was  to  home," 
as  he  told  me,  "in  the  Eed  Kiver  Country,"  in  the  north- 
eastern part  of  Texas,  having  emigrated  thither  from 
Alabama,  some  years  before.  He  was  a  tall,  thin,  awkward 
person,  and  wore  a  suit  of  clothes  (probably  bought  "  ready- 
made  ")  which  would  have  better  suited  a  short,  fat  figure. 
Under  his  waistcoat  he  carried  a  large  knife,  with  the  hilt 
generally  protruding  at  the  breast.  He  had  been  with  his 
family  to  his  former  home,  for  a  business  purpose,  and  was 
now  returning  to  his  plantation.  His  wife  was  a  pale  and 
harassed-looking  woman ;  and  he  scarce  ever  paid  her  the 


278  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

smallest  attention,  not  even  sitting  near  her  at  the  public 
table.  Of  his  children,  however,  he  seemed  very  fond  ;  and 
they  had  a  negro  servant  in  attendance  upon  them,  whom  he 
was  constantly  scolding  and  threatening.  Having  been  from 
home  for  six  weeks,  his  impatience  to  return  was  very  great, 
and  was  constantly  aggravated  by  the  frequent  and  long- 
continued  stoppages  of  the  boat.  "  Time's  money,  time's 
money !"  he  would  be  constantly  saying,  while  we  were 
taking  on  cotton — "  time's  worth  more'n  money  to  me  now  ; 
a  hundred  per  cent,  more,  'cause  I  left  my  niggers  all  alone  ; 
not  a  dam  white  man  within  four  mile  on  'em." 

I  asked  how  many  negroes  he  had. 

"I've  got  twenty  on  'em  to  home,  and  thar  they  ar  !  and 
thar  they  ar  !  and  thar  aint  a  dam  soul  of  a  white  fellow 
within  four  mile  on  'em." 

"  They  are  picking  cotton,  I  suppose  ?" 

"  No,  I  got  through  pickin'  'fore  I  left." 

"  What  work  have  they  to  do,  then,  now  ?" 

"I  set  'em  to  clairin',  but  they  aint  doin'  a  dam  thing — 
not  a  dam  thing,  they  aint ;  that's  wat  they  are  doin',  that 
is — not  a  dam  thing.  I  know  that,  as  well  as  you  do. 
That's  the  reason  time's  an  object.  I  told  the  capting  so, 
wen  I  came  aboard :  says  I,  '  capting,'  says  I,  '  time  is  in 
the  objective  case  with  me.'  No,  sir,  they  aint  doin'  a  dam 
solitary  thing  ;  that's  what  they  are  up  to.  I  know  that  as 
well  as  anybody ;  I  do.  But  I'll  make  it  up,  I'll  make  it 
up,  when  I  get  thar,  now  you'd  better  believe." 

Once,  when  a  lot  of  cotton,  baled  with  unusual  neatness, 
was  coming  on  board,  and  some  doubt  had  been  expressed  as 
to  the  economy  of  the  method  of  baling,  he  said  very  loudly  : 

"  Well,  now,  I'd  be  willin'  to  bet  my  salvation,  that  them 
thar's  the  heaviest  bales  that's  come  on  to  this  boat." 

"  I'll  bet  you  a  hundred  dollars  of  it,"  answered  one. 


ALABAMA   AND    MISSISSIPPI.  279 

"  Well,  if  I  was  in  the  habit  of  bettin',  I'd  do  it.  I  aint  a 
bettin'  man.  But  I  ain  a  cotton  man,  I  am,  and  I  don't  car 
who  knows  it.  I  know  cotton,  I  do.  I'm  dam  if  I  know 
anythin'  but  cotton.  I  ought  to  know  cotton,  I  had.  I've 
been  at  it  ever  sin'  I  was  a  chile." 

"  Stranger,"  he  asked  me  once,  "  did  you  ever  come  up  on 
the  Leweezay  ?  She's  a  right  smart  pretty  boat,  she  is,  the 
Leweezay  ;  the  best  I  ever  see  on  the  Alabamy  river.  They 
wanted  me  to  wait  and  come  down  on  her,  but  I  told  'em 
time  was  in  the  objective  case  to  me.  She  is  a  right  pretty 
boat,  and  her  capting's  a  high-tone  gentleman;  haint  no 
objections  to  find  with  him — he's  a  high-tone  gentleman, 
that's  what  he  is.  But  the  pilot — well,  damn  him !  He 
run  her  right  out  of  the  river,  up  into  the  woods — didn't  run 
her  in  the  river,  at  all.  When  I  go  aboard  a  steamboat,  I  like 
to  keep  in  the  river,  somewar ;  but  that  pilot,  he  took  her 
right  up  into  the  woods.  It  was  just  clairin'  land.  Clairin 
land,  and  playin'  hell  ginerally,  all  night ;  not  follering  the 
river  at  all.  I  believe  he  was  drunk.  He  must  have  been 
drunk,  for  I  could  keep  a  boat  in  the  river  myself.  I'll  never 
go  in  a  boat  where  the  pilot's  drunk  all  the  time.  I  take  a 
glass  too  much  myself,  sometimes  ;  but  I  don't  hold  two 
hundred  lives  in  the  holler  of  my  hand.  I  was  in  my  berth, 
and  he  run  her  straight  out  of  the  river,  slap  up  into  the 
furest.  It  threw  me  clean  out  of  my  berth,  out  onter  the 
floor;  I  didn't  sleep  any  more  while  I  was  aboard.  The 
Leweezay 's  a  right  smart  pretty  little  boat,  and  her  capting's 
a  high-tone  gentleman.  They  hev  good  livin'  aboard  of  her, 
too.  Haan't  no  objections  on  that  score ;  weddin5  fixins  all 
the  time  ;  but  I  won't  go  in  a  boat  war  the  pilot's  drunk.  I 
set  some  vally  on  the  life  of  two  hundred  souls.  They 
wanted  to  hev  me  come  down  on  her,  but  I  told  'em  time  was 
in  the  objective  case." 


280  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

There  were  three  young  negroes,  carried  by  another  Texan, 
on  the  deck,  outside  the  cabin.  I  don't  know  why  they  were 
not  allowed  to  be  with  the  other  emigrant  slaves,  carried  on 
the  lower  deck,  unless  the  owner  was  afraid  of  their  trying 
to  get  away,  an-1  had  no  handcuffs  small  enough  for  them. 
They  were  boys ;  the  oldest  twelve  or  fourteen  years  old,  the 
youngest  not  more  than  seven.  They  had  evidently  been 
bought  lately  by  their  present  owner,  and  probably  had  just 
been  taken  from  their  parents.  They  lay  on  the  deck  and 
slept,  with  no  bed  but  the  passengers'  luggage,  and  no 
cover  but  a  single  blanket  for  each.  Early  one  morning, 
after  a  very  stormy  night,  when  they  must  have  suffered 
much  from  the  driving  rain  and  cold,  I  saw  their  owner  with 
a  glass  of  spirits,  giving  each  a  few  swallows  from  it.  The 
older  ones  smacked  their  lips,  and  said,  "  Tank  'ou  massa  ;" 
but  the  little  one  couldn't  drink  it,  and  cried  aloud,  when  he 
was  forced  to.  The  older  ones  were  very  playful  and  quarrel- 
some, and  continually  teasing  the  younger,  who  seemed  very 
sad,  or  homesick  and  sulky.  He  would  get  very  angry  at 
their  mischievous  fun,  and  sometimes  strike  them.  He  would 
then  be  driven  into  a  corner,  where  he  would  lie  on  his  back, 
and  kick  at  them  in  a  perfect  frenzy  of  anger  and  grief.  The 
two  boys  would  continue  to  laugh  at  him,  and  frequently  the 
passengers  would  stand  about,  and  be  amused  by  it.  Once, 
when  they  had  plagued  him  in  this  way  for  some  time,  he 
jumped  up  on  to  the  cotton-bales,  and  made  as  if  he  would 
have  plunged  overboard.  One  of  the  older  boys  caught  him 
by  the  ankle,  and  held  him  till  his  master  came  and  hauled 
him  in,  and  gave  him  a  severe  flogging  with  a  rope's  end. 
A  number  of  passengers  collected  about  them,  and  I  heard 
several  say,  "  That's  what  he  wants."  Red  Kiver  said  to  me, 
"  I've  been  a  watchin'  that  ar  boy,  and  I  see  what's  the  mat- 
ter with  him ;  heis  got  the  devil  in  him  right  bad,  and  he'll 


ALABAMA   AND    MISSISSIPPI.  281 

hev  to  take  a  right  many  of  them  warmins  before  it'll  be  got 
out." 

The  crew  of  the  boat,  as  I  have  intimated,  was  composed 
partly  of  Irishmen,  and  partly  of  negroes ;  the  latter  were 
slaves,  and  were  hired  of  their  owners  at  $40  a  month — the 
same  wages  paid  to  the  Irishmen.  A  dollar  of  their  wages 
was  given  to  the  negroes  themselves,  for  each  Sunday  they 
were  on  the. passage.  So  far  as  convenient,  they  were  kept 
at  work  separately  from  the  white  hands ;  they  were  also 
messed  separately.  On  Sunday  I  observed  them  dining  in  a 
group,  on  the  cotton-bales.  The  food  which  was  given  to 
them  in  tubs,  from  the  kitchen,  was  various  and  abundant, 
consisting  of  bean-porridge,  bacon,  corn  bread,  ship's  biscuit, 
potatoes,  duff  (pudding),  and  gravy.  There  was  one  knife 
used  only,  among  ten  of  them ;  the  bacon  was  cut  and  torn 
into  shares  ;  splinters  of  the  bone  and  of  fire-wood  were  used 
for  forks  ;  the  porridge  was  passed  from  one  to  another,  and 
drank  out  of  the  tub  ;  but  though  excessively  dirty  and  beast- 
like  in  their  appearance  and  manners,  they  were  good-natured 
and  jocose  as  usual. 

"  Heah !  you  Bill,"  said  one  to  another,  who  was  on  a 
higher  tier  of  cotton,  "  pass  down  de  dessart.  You  !  up  dar 
on  de  bill ;  de  dessart !  A  ugh  !  don't  you  know  what  de  des- 
sart be  ?  De  duff,  you  fool." 

"  Does  any  of  de  gemmen  want  some  o'  dese  potatum  ?" 
asked  another ;  and  no  answer  being  given,  he  turned  the 
tub  full  of  potatoes  overboard,  without  any  hesitation.  It 
v,-as  evident  he  had  never  had  to  think  on  one  day  how  he 
x.ould  be  able  to  live  the  next. 

Whenever  we  landed  at  night  or  on  Sunday,  for  wood  or 
cotton,  there  would  be  many  negroes  come  on  board 
from  the  neighbouring  plantations,  to  sell  eggs  to  the 
steward. 


282  COTTON  AND   SLAVERY. 

Sunday  was  observed  by  the  discontinuance  of  public  gam- 
bling in  the  cabin,  and  in  no  other  way.  At  midnight 
gambling  was  resumed,  and  during  the  whole  passage  was 
never  at  any  other  time  discontinued,  night  or  day,  so  far  as 
I  saw.  There  were  three  men  that  seemed  to  be  professional 
sharpers,  and  who  probably  played  into  each  other's  hands. 
One  young  man  lost  all  the  money  he  had  with  him — several 
hundred  dollars. 

Mobile,  in  its  central,  business  part,  is  very  compactly 
built,  dirty,  and  noisy,  with  little  elegance,  or  evidence  of 
taste  or  public  spirit,  in  its  people.  A  small,  central,  open 
square — the  only  public  ground  that  I  saw — was  used  as  a 
horse  and  hog  pasture,  and  clothes  drying-yard.  Out  of  the 
busier  quarter,  there  is  a  good  deal  of  the  appearance  of  a 
thriving  New  England  village — almost  all  the  dwelling- 
houses  having  plots  of  ground  enclosed  around  them,  planted 
with  trees  and  shrubs.  The  finest  trees  are  the  magnolia 
and  live  oak  ;•  and  the  most  valuable  shrub  is  the  Cherokee 
rose,  which  is  much  used  for  hedges  and  screens.  It  is  ever- 
green, and  its  leaves  are  glossy  and  beautiful  at  all  seasons, 
and  in  March  it  blooms  profusely.  There  is  an  abundance, 
also,  of  the  Cape  jessamine.  It  is  as  beautiful  as  a  camelia  ; 
and,  when  in  blossom,  scents  the  whole  air  with  a  most  deli- 
cate and  delicious  fragrance.  At  a  market-garden,  near  the 
town  which  I  visited,  I  found  most  of  the  best  Northern  and 
Belgian  pears  fruiting  well,  and  apparently  healthy,  and 
well  suited  in  climate,  on  quince-stocks.  Figs  are  abundant, 
and  bananas  and  oranges  are  said  to  be  grown  with  some 
care,  and  slight  winter  protection. 

The  Battle  House,  kept  by  Boston  men,  with  Irish  ser- 
vants, I  found  an  excellent  hotel;  but  with  higher  charge 
than  I  had  ever  paid  before.  Prices,  generally,  in  Mobile, 
range  very  high.  There  are  large  numbers  of  foreign  mer- 


ALABAMA   AND   MISSISSIPPI.  283 

chants  in  the  population ;    but  a  great  deficiency  of  trades- 
men and  mechanics. 

While  I  was  at  Montgomery,  my  hat  was  one  day  taken 
from  the  dining-room,  at  dinner-time,  by  some  one  who  left 
in  its  place  for  me  a  very  battered  and  greasy  substitute, 
which  I  could  not  wear,  if  I  had  chosen  to.  I  asked  the 
landlord  what  I  should  do.  "  Be  before  him,  to-morrow." 
Following  this  cool  advice,  and,  in  the  mean  time,  wearing  a 
cap,  I  obtained  my  hat  the  next  day  ;  but  so  ill  used,  that  I 
should  not  have  known  it,  but  for  the  maker's  name,  stamped 
within  it.  Not  succeeding  in  fitting  myself  with  a  new  hat, 
I  desired  to  have  my  old  one  pressed,  when  in  Mobile ;  but 
I  could  not  find  a  working  hatter  in  the  place,  though  it  has 
a  population  of  thirty  thousand  souls.  Finally,  a  hat-dealer, 
a  German  Jew,  I  think  he  was,  with  whom  I  had  left  it 
while  looking  further,  returned  it  to  me,  with  a  charge  of 
one  dollar,  for  brushing  it — the  benefit  of  which  brushing  I 
was  unable,  in  the  least,  to  perceive.  A  friend  informed  me 
that  he  found  it  cheaper  to  have  all  his  furniture  and  clothing 
made  for  him,  in  New  York,  to  order,  when  he  needed  any, 
and  sent  on  by  express,  than  to  get  it  in  Mobile. 

The  great  abunaance  of  the  best  timber  for  the  purpose,  in 
the  United  States,  growing  in  the  vicinity  of  the  town,  has 
lately  induced  some  persons  to  attempt  ship-building  at  Mo- 
bile. The  mechanics  employed  are  all  from  the  North. 

The  great  business  of  the  town  is  the  transfer  of  cotton, 
from  the  producer  to  the  manufacturer,  from  the  waggon  and 
the  steamboat  to  the  sea-going  ship.  Like  all  the  other 
cotton-ports,  Mobile  labours  under  the  disadvantage  of  a 
shallow  harbour.  At  the  wharves,  there  were  only  a  few 
small  craft  and  steamboats.  All  large  sea-going  vessels  lie 
some  thirty  miles  below,  and  their  freights  are  transhipped 
in  lighters. 


284  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

There  appears  to  be  a  good  deal  of  wsalth  and  luxury,  as 
well  as  senseless  extravagance  in  the  town.  English  mer- 
chants affect  the  character  of  the  society,  considerably ;  some 
very  favourably — -some,  very  much  otherwise.  Many  of  them 
own  slaves,  and,  probably,  all  employ  them ;  but  Slavery 
seems  to.be  of  more  value  to  them  from  the  amusement  it 
affords,  than  in  any  other  way.  "  So-and-so  advertises  '  a 
valuable  drayman,  and  a  good  blacksmith  and  horse-shoer,  for 
sale,  on  reasonable  terms  ;'  an  acclimated  double-entry  book- 
keeper, kind  in  harness,  is  what  I  want,"  said  one ;  "those 
Virginia  patriarchs  haven't  any  enterprise,  or  they'd  send  on 
a  stock  of  such  goods  every  spring,  to  be  kept  over  through 
the  fever,  so  they  could  warrant  them." 

"  I  don't  know  where  you'll  find  one,"  replied  another ; 
"  but  if  you  are  wanting  a  private  chaplain,  there's  one  I 
have  heard,  in street,  several  times,  that  could  pro- 
bably be  bought  for  a  fair  price ;  and  I  will  warrant  him 
sound  enough  in  wind,  if  not  in  doctrine." 

"  I  wouldn't  care  for  his  doctrine,  if  I  bought  him  ;  I  don't 
care  how  black  he  is ;  feed  him  right,  and  in  a  month  he 
will  be  as  orthodox  as  an  archbishop." 


ALABAMA,    MISSISSIPPI,    ETC.  285 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

MISSISSIPPI   AND   LOUISIANA. 

New  Orleans. — The  steamboat  by  which  I  made  the  passage 
along  the  north  shore  of  the  Mexican  Gulf  to  New  Orleans, 
was  New  York  built,  and  owned  by  a  New-Yorker ;  and  the 
Northern  usage  of  selling  passage  tickets,  to  be  returned  on 
leaving  the  boat,  was  retained  upon  it.  I  was  sitting  near  a 
group  of  Texans  and  emigrating  planters,  when  a  waiter 
passed  along,  crying  the  usual  request,  that  passengers  who 
had  not  obtained  tickets  would  call  at  the  captain's  office  for 
that  purpose.  "  What's  that  ?  What's  that  ?"  they  shouted ; 
"  What  did  he  mean  ?  What  is  it  ?"  "  Why,  it's  a  dun," 
said  one.  "  He  is  dunnin'  on  us,  sure,"  continued  one  and 
another ;  and  some  started  from  the  seats,  as  if  they  thought 
it  insulting.  "  Well,  it's  the  first  time  I  ever  was  dunned  by 
a  nigger,  I'll  swar,"  said  one.  This  seemed  to  place  it  in  a 
humorous  aspect ;  and,  after  a  hearty  laugh,  they  resumed 
their  discussion  of  the  advantages  offered  to  emigrants  in 
different  parts  of  Texas,  and  elsewhere. 

There  was  a  young  man  on  the  boat  who  had  been  a 
passenger  with  me  on  the  boat  from  Montgomery.  He  was 
bound  for  Texas;  and  while  on  board  the  Fashion  I  had 
heard  him  saying  that  he  had  met  with  "  a  right  smart  bad 
streak  of  luck  "  on  his  way,  having  lost  a  valuable  negro. 

"  I  thought  you  were  going  on  with  those  men  to  Texas, 
the  other  day,"  said  I. 

"  No,"  he  replied  ;  "  I  left  my  sister  in  Mobile,  when  I 


286  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

went  back  after  my  nigger,  and  when  I  came  down  again,  I 
found  that  she  had  found  an  old  acquaintance  there,  and 
they  had  concluded  to  get  married ;  so  I  stayed  to  see  the 
wedding." 

"  Rather  quick  work." 

"  Well,  I  reckon  they'd  both  thought  about  it  when  they 
knew  each  other  before ;  but  I  didn't  know  it,  and  it  kind  o' 
took  me  by  surprise.  So  my  other  sister,  she  concluded  Ann 
had  done  so  well  stopping  in  Mobile,  she'd  stop  and  keep 
company  with  her  a  spell ;  and  so  I've  got  to  go  'long  alone. 
Makes  me  feel  kind  o'  lonesome — losing  that  nigger  too." 

"  Did  you  say  that  you  went  back  after  the  nigger  ?  I 
thought  he  died  ?" 

"  Well,  you  see  I  had  brought  him  along  as  far  as  Mobile, 
and  he  got  away  from  me  there,  and  slipped  aboard  a  steam- 
boat going  back,  and  hid  himself.  I  found  out  that  he  was 
aboard  of  her  pretty  soon  after  she  got  off,  and  I  sent  tele- 
graphic despatches  to  several  places  along  up  the  river,  to 
the  captain,  to  put  him  in  a  jail,  ashore,  for  me.  I  know  he 
got  one  of  them  at  Cahawba,  but  he  didn't  mind  it  till  he 
got  to  Montgomery.  Well,  the  nigger  didn't  have  any 
attention  paid  to  him.  They  just  put  him  in  irons ;  likely 
enough  he  didn't  get  much  to  eat,  or  have  anything  to  cover 
himself,  and  he  took  cold,  and  got  sick — got  pneumonia — 
and  when  they  got  to  Montgomery,  they  made  him  walk  up 
to  the  jail,  and  there  wan't  no  fire,  and  nothin'  to  lie  on,  nor 
nothin'  for  him  in  the  jail,  and  it  made  quick  work  with  him. 
Before  I  could  get  up  there  he  was  dead.  I  see  an  attorney 
here  to  Mobile,  and  he  offered  to  take  the  case,  and  prosecute 
the  captain  ;  and  he  says  if  he  don't  recover  every  red  cent 
the  man  was  worth,  he  won't  ask  me  for  a  fee.  It  comes 
kinder  hard  on  me.  I  bought  the  nigger  up,  counting  I 
should  make  a  speculation  on  him  ;  reckoned  I'd  take  him  to 


ALABAMA,    MISSISSIPPI,    ETC.  287 

Texas  if  I  couldn't  turn  him  to  good  advantage  at  Mobile. 
As  niggers  is  goin'  here  now,  I  expect  'twas  a  dead  loss  of 
eight  hundred  dollars,  right  out  of  pocket." 

There  were  a  large  number  of  steerage  passengers  occu- 
pying the  main  deck,  forward  of  the  shaft.  Many  of  them 
were  Irish,  late  immigrants,  but  the  large  majority  were 
slaves,  going  on  to  New  Orleans  to  be  sold,  or  moving  with 
their  masters,  to  Texas.  There  was  a  fiddle  or  two  among 
them,  and  they  were  very  merry,  dancing  and  singing.  A 
few,  however,  refused  to  join  in  the  amusement,  and  looked 
very  disconsolate.  A  large  proportion  of  them  were  boys 
and  girls,  under  twenty  years  of  age. 

On  the  forecastle-deck  there  was  a  party  of  emigrants, 
moving  with  waggons.  There  were  three  men,  a  father  and 
his  two  sons,  or  sons-in-law,  with  their  families,  including  a 
dozen  or  more  women  and  children.  They  had  two  waggons, 
covered  with  calico  and  bed-ticks,  supported  by  hoops,  in 
which  they  carried  their  furniture  and  stores,  and  in  which 
they  also  slept  at  night,  the  women  in  one,  and  the  men  in 
the  other.  They  had  six  horses,  two  mules,  and  two  pair  of 
cattle  with  them.  I  asked  the  old  man  why  he  had  taken 
his  cattle  along  with  him,  when  he  was  going  so  far  by  sea, 
and  found  that  he  had  informed  himself  accurately  of  what  it 
would  cost  him  to  hire  or  buy  cattle  at  Galveston ;  and  that 
taking  into  account  the  probable  delay  he  would  experience 
in  looking  for  them  there,  he  had  calculated  that  he  could 
afford  to  pay  the  freight  on  them,  to  have  them  with  him,  to 
go  on  at  once  into  the  country  on  his  arrival,  rather  than  to 
sell  them  at  Mobile. 

"  But,"  said  he,  "  there  was  one  thing  I  didn't  cakulate 
on,  and  I  don't  understand  it ;  the  capting  cherged  me  two 
dolkrs  and  a  half  for  '  wherfage.'  I  don't  know  what  that 
means,  do  you  ?  I  want  to  know,  because  I  don't  car'  to  be 


288  CX)TTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

imposed  upon  by  nobody.  I  payed  it  without  sayin'  a  word, 
'cause  I  never  travelled  on  the  water  before ;  next  time  I  do, 
I  shall  be  more  sassy."  I  asked  where  he  was  going. 
"Didn't  know  much  about  it,"  he  said,  "but  reckoned  he 
could  find  a  place  where  there  was  a  good  range,  and  plenty 
of  game.  If  'twas  as  good  a  range  (pasture)  as  'twas  to 
Alabama  when  he  first  came  there,  he'd  be  satisfied."  After 
he'd  got  his  family  safe  through  acclimating  this  time,  he 
reckoned  he  shouldn't  move  again. .  He  had  moved  about  a 
good  deal  in  his  life.  There  was  his  littlest  boy,  he  said, 
looking  kindly  at  a  poor,  thin,  blue-faced  little  child — he 
reckoned  they'd  be  apt  to  leave  him ;  he  had  got  tropsical, 
and  was  of  mighty  weak  constitution,  nat'rally ;  'twouldn't 
take  much  to  carry  him  off,  and,  of  course,  a  family  must  be 
exposed  a  good  deal,  moving  so  this  time  of  year.  They 
should  try  to  find  some  heavy  timbered  land — good  land,  and 
go  to  clearing ;  didn't  calculate  to  make  any  crops  the  first 
year — didn't  calculate  on  it,  though  perhaps  they  might  if 
they  had  good  luck.  They  had  come  from  an  eastern  county 
of  Alabama.  Had  sold  out  his  farm  for  two  dollars  an  acre  ; 
best  land  in  the  district  was  worth  four ;  land  was  naturally 
kind  of  thin,  and  now  'twas  pretty  much  all  worn  out  there. 
He  had  moved  first  from  North  Carolina,  with  his  father. 
They  never  made  anything  to  sell  but  cotton  ;  made  corn  for 
their  own  use.  Never  had  any  negroes ;  reckoned  he'd  done 
about  as  well  as  if  he  had  had  them  ;  reckoned  a  little  better 
on  the  whole.  No,  he  should  not  work  negroes  in  Texas. 
"Niggers  is  so  kerless,  and  want  so  much  lookin'  arter;  they 
is  so  monstrous  lazy  ;  they  won't  do  no  work,  you  know,  less 
you  are  clus  to  'em  all  the  time,  and  I  don't  feel  like  it.  I 
couldn't,  at  my  time  of  life,  begin  a-using  the  lash  ;  and  you 
know  they  do  have  to  take  that,  all  on  'em — and  a  heap  on't, 
sometimes." 


ALABAMA,    MISSISSIPPI,    ETC.  280 

"  I  don't  know  much  about  it ;  they  don't  have  slaves 
where  I  live." 

"  Then  you  come  from  a  Free  State  ;  well,  they've  talked 
some  of  makin'  Alabamy  a  Free  State." 

"  I  didn't  know  that." 

"  0,  yes,  there  was  a  good  deal  of  talk  one  time,  as  if  they 
was  goin'  to  do  it  right  off.  0,  yes ;  there  was  two  or  three 
of  the  States  this  way,  one  time,  come  pretty  nigh  freein'  the 
niggers — lettin'  'em  all  go  free." 

"  And  what  do  you  think  of  it  ?" 

"  Well,  I'll  tell  you  what  I  think  on  it ;  I'd  like  it  if  we 
could  get  rid  on  'em  to  yonst.  I  wouldn't  like  to  hev  'em 
freed,  if  they  was  gwine  to  hang  'round.  They  ought  to  get 
some  country,  and  put  'em  war  they  could  be  by  themselves. 
It  wouldn't  do  no  good  to  free  'em,  and  let  'em  hang  round, 
because  they  is  so  monstrous  lazy ;  if  they  hadn't  got  nobody 
to  take  keer  on  'em,  you  see  they  wouldn't  do  nothin'  but 
juss  nat'rally  laze  round,  and  steal,  and  pilfer,  and  no  man 
couldn't  live,  you  see,  war  they  was — if  they  was  free,  no 
man  couldn't  live.  And  then,  I've  two  objections;  that's 
one  on  'em — no  man  couldn't  live — and  this  ere's  the  other  : 
Now  suppose  they  was  free,  you  see  they'd  all  think  them- 
selves just  as  good  as  we ;  of  course  they  would,  if  they  was 
free.  Now,  just  suppose  you  had  a  family  of  children :  how 
would  you  like  to  hev  a  niggar  feelin'  just  as  good  as  a  white 
man  ?  how'd  you  like  to  hev  a  niggar  steppin'  up  to  your 
darter  ?  Of  course  you  wouldn't ;  and  that's  the  reason  I 
wouldn't  like  to  hev  'em  free ;  but  I  tell  you,  I  don't  think 
it's  right  to  hev  'em  slaves  so ;  that's  the  fac — taant  right  to 
keep  'em  as  they  is." 

I  was  awakened,  in  the  morning,  by  the  loud  ringing  of  a 
hand-bell;  and,  turning  out  of  my  berth,  dressed  by  dim 
VOL.  i.  u 


200  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

lamp-light.  The  waiters  were  serving  coffee  and  collecting 
baggage  ;  and,  upon  stepping  out  of  the  cabin,  I  found  that 
the  boat  was  made  fast  to  a  long  wooden  jetty,  and  the  pas- 
sengers were  going  ashore.  A  passage-ticket  for  New  Orleans 
was  handed  me,  as  I  crossed  the  gang-plank.  There  was  a 
rail-track  and  a  train  of  cars  upon  the  wharf,  but  no  loco- 
motive ;  and  I  got  iny  baggage  checked,  and  walked  on 
toward  the  shore. 

It  was  early  daylight — a  fog  rested  on  the  water,  and  only 
the  nearest  point  could  be  discerned.  There  were  many  small 
buildings  near  the  jetty,  erected  on  piles  over  the  water — 
bathing-houses,  bowling-alleys,  and  billiard-rooms,  with  other 
indications  of  a  place  of  holiday  resort — and,  on  reaching  the 
shore,  I*  found  a  slumbering  village.  The  first  house  from 
the  wharf  had  a  garden  about  it,  with  complex  alleys,  and 
tables,  and  arbours,  and  rustic  seats,  and  cut  shrubs,  and  shells, 
and  statues,  and  vases,  and  a  lamp  was  feebly  burning  in  a 
large  lantern  over  the  entrance  gate.  I  was  thinking  how 
like  it  was  to  a  rural  restaurant  in  France  or  Germany,  when 
a  locomotive  backed,  screaming  hoarsely,  down  the  jetty ;  and 
I  returned  to  get  my  seat. 

Off  we  puffed,  past  the  restaurant,  into  the  village — the 
name  of  which  I  did  not  inquire,  everybody  near  me  seemed 
so  cold  and  cross, — through  the  little  village  of  white  houses 
— whatever  it  was — and  away  into  a  dense,  gray  cypress 
forest.  For  three  or  four  rods,  each  side  of  the  track,  the 
trees  had  all  been  felled  and  removed,  leaving  a  dreary  strip 
of  swamp,  covered  with  stumps.  This  was  bounded  and  inter- 
sected by  broad  ditches,  or  narrow  and  shallow  canals,  with  a 
great  number  of  very  small  punts  in  them.  So  it  continued, 
for  two  or  three  miles  ;  then  the  ground  became  dryer,  there 
was  an  abrupt  termination  of  the  gray  wood ;  the  fog  was  lift- 
ing and  drifting  off,  in  ragged,  rosy  clouds,  disclosing  a  flat 


LOUISIANA.  291 

country,  skirted  still,  and  finally  bounded,  in  the  background, 
with  the  swamp-forest.  A  few  low  houses,  one  story  high,  all 
having  verandahs  before  them,  were  scattered  thinly  over  it. 

At  length,  a  broad  road  struck  in  by  the  side  of  the  track ; 
the  houses  became  more  frequent ;  soon  forming  a  village  street, 
with  smoke  ascending  from  breakfast  fires  ;  windows  and  doors 
opening,  maids  sweeping  steps,  bakers'  waggons  passing,  and 
broad  streets,  little  built  upon,  breaking  off  at  right  angles. 

At  the  corners  of  these  streets,  were  high  poles,  connected 
at  the  top  by  a  rope,  and  furnished  with  blocks  and  halyards, 
by  which  great  square  lanterns  were  slung  over  the  middle  of 
the  carriage-way.  I  thought  again  of  France,  ("  a  la  lan- 
terne  /")  and  turning  to  one  of  my  cold  and  cross  companions 
— a  man  wrapped  in  a  loose  coat,  with  a  cowl  over  his  head 
—I  asked  the  name  of  the  village,  for  my  geography  was  at 
fault.  I  had  expected  to  be  landed  at  New  Orleans  by  the 
boat,  and  had  not  been  informed  of  the  railroad  arrangement, 
and  had  no  idea  in  what  part  of  Louisiana  we  might  be. 
"  Note  Anglische,  sare,"  was  the  gruff  reply. 

There  was  a  sign,  "  Cafe  du  Faubourg"  and,  putting  my 
head  out  of  the  window,  I  saw  that  we  must  have  arrived  at 
New  Orleans.  We  reached  the  terminus,  which  was  sur- 
rounded with  fiacres,  in  the  style  of  Paris.  "  To  the  Hotel 
St.  Charles,"  I  said  to  a  driver,  confused  with  the  loud  French 
and  quiet  English  of  the  crowd  about  me.  "  Oui,  yer  'onor," 
was  the  reply  of  my  Irish-born  fellow-citizen :  another  pas- 
senger was  got,  and  away  we  rattled  through  narrow  dirty 
streets,  among  grimy  old  stuccoed  walls ;  high  arched  win- 
dows and  doors,  balconies  and  entresols,  and  French  noises 
and  French  smells,  French  signs,  ten  to  one  of  English,  but 
with  funny  polygomatic  arrangements,  sometimes,  from  which 
less  influential  families  were  not  excluded. 

The  other  fare  to  whom  I  had  no*  ventured  to  speak  was 

u  2 


292  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

set  down  at  a  salle  pour  la  vente  des  somethings,  and  soon 
after  the  fiacre  turned  out  upon  a  broad  place,  covered  with 
bales  of  cotton,  and  casks  of  sugar,  and  weighing  scales,  and 
disclosing  an  astonishing  number  of  steamboats,  lying  all 
close  together  in  a  line,  the  ends  of  which  were  lost  in  the 
mist,  which  still  hung  upon  the  river. 

Now  the  signs  became  English,  and  the  new  brick  buildings 
American.  We  turned  into  a  broad  street,  in  which  shutters 
were  being  taken  from  great  glass  store-fronts,  and  clerks 
were  exercising  their  ingenuity  in  the  display  of  muslin,  and 
silks,  and  shawls.  In  the  middle  of  the  broad  street  there 
was  an  open  space  of  waste  ground,  looking  as  if  the  corpo- 
ration had  not  been  able  to  pave  the  whole  of  it  at  once,  and 
had  left  this  interval  to  be  attended  to  when  the  treasury  was 
better  filled.  Crossing  through  a  gap  in  this  waste,  we 
entered  a  narrow  street  of  high  buildings,  French,  Spanish, 
and  English  signs,  the  latter  predominating ;  and  at  the  second 
block,  I  was  landed  before  the  great  Grecian  portico  of  the 
stupendous,  tasteless,,  ill-contrived,  and  inconvenient  St. 
Charles  Hotel. 

After  a  bath  and  breakfast,  I  returned,  with  great  interest, 
to  wander  in  the  old  French  town,  the  characteristics  of 
which  I  have  sufficiently  indicated.  Among  the  houses,  one 
occasionally  sees  a  relic  of  ancient  Spanish  builders,  while  all 
the  newer  edifices  have  the  characteristics  of  the  dollar-pursu- 
ing Yankees. 

I  was  delighted  when  I  reached  the  old  Place  d'Armes, 
now  a  public  garden,  bright  with  the  orange  and  lemon  trees, 
and  roses,  and  myrtles,  and  laurels,  and  jessamines  of  the 
south  of  France.  Fronting  upon  it  is  the  ancient  Hotel  de 
Ville,  still  the  city  court-house,  a  quaint  old  French  struc- 
ture, with  scaly  and  vermiculated  surface,  and  deep-worn 
door-sills,  and  smooth-rubbed  corners ;  the  most  picturesque 


LOUISIANA.  293 

and  historic-looking  public  building,  except  the  highly  pre- 
served, little  old  court-house  at  Newport,  that  I  can  now 
think  of  in  the  United  States. 

Adjoining  it  is  an  old  Spanish  cathedral,  damaged  by 
paint,  and  late  alterations  and  repairs,  but  still  a  fine  thing 
in  our  desert  of  the  reverend  in  architecture.  Enough,  that 
while  it  is  not  new,  it  is  not  shabby,  and  is  not  tricked  out 
with  much  frippery,*  gingerbread  and  confectionery  work. 
The  door  is  open ;  coaches  and  crippled  beggars  are  near  it. 
A  priest,  with  a  face  the  expression  of  which  first  makes  one 
think  of  an  ape  and  then  of  an  owl,  is  coming  out.  If  he 
were  not  otherwise  to  be  heartily  welcomed  to  fresh  air  and 
sunlight,  he  should  be  so,  for  the  sake  of  the  Sister  of  Charity 
who  is  following  him,  probably  to  some  death-bed,  with  a 
corpse-like  face  herself,  haggard  but  composed,  pensive  and 
absorbed,  and  with  the  eyes  of  a  broken  heart.  I  think  that 
I  may  yet  meet  them  looking  down  compassionately  and 
soothingly,  in  some  far  distant  pestilent  or  war-hospital.  In 
lieu  of  holy-water,  then,  here  is  money  for  the  poor-box, 
though  the  devil  share  it  with  good  angels. 

Dark  shadows,  and  dusky  light,  and  deep,  subdued,  low 
organ  strains  pervade  the  interior;  and,  on  the  bare  floor, 
here  are  the  kneeling  women — "  good"  and  "  bad"  women — 
and,  ah !  yes,  white  and  black  women,  bowed  in  equality 
before  their  common  Father.  "  Ridiculously  absurd  idea," 
say  democratic  Governors  Me  Duffie  and  Hammond ;  "  Self- 
evident,"  said  our  ancestors,  and  so  must  say  the  voice  of  con- 
science, in  all  free,  humble  hearts. 

In  the  crowded  market-place,  there  were  not  only  the  pure 
old  Indian  Americans,  and  the  Spanish,  French,  English, 
Celtic,  and  African,  but  nearly  all  possible  mixed  varieties  of 
these,  and  no  doubt  of  some  other  breeds  of  mankind. 

*  Contemptible ;  from  the  root  Fripper,  to  wear  out. — WEBSTER. 


294  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

The  various  grades  of  the  coloured  people  are  designated  by 
the  French  as  follows,  according  to  the  greater  or  less  predo- 
minance of  negro  blood  : — 

Sacatra griffe  and  negress. 

Griffe .  negro  and  mulatto. 

Marabou mulatto  and  griffe. 

Mulatto white  and  negro. 

Quarteron white  and  mulatto. 

Metif white  and  quarteron. 

Meamelouc white  and  metif. 

Quarteron white  and  meamelouc. 

Sang-mele white  and  quarteron. 

And  all  these,  with  the  sub-varieties  of  them,  French,  Spa- 
nish, English,  and  Indian,  and  the  sub-sub-varieties,  such  as 
Anglo-Indian-mulatto,  I  believe  experts  pretend  to  be  able  to 
distinguish.  Whether  distinguishable  or  not,  it  is  -certain 
they  all  exist  in  New  Orleans. 

They  say  that  the  cross  of  the  French  and  Spanish  with 
the  African  produces  a  finer  and  a  healthier  result  than  that 
of  the  more  Northern  European  races.  Certainly,  the  French 
quadroons  are  very  handsome  and  healthy  in  appearance ;  and 
I  should  not  be  surprised  if  really  thorough  and  sufficient  sci- 
entific observation  should  show  them  to  be — contrary  to  the 
common  assertion — more  vigorous  than  either  of  the  parent 
races. 

Some  of  the  coloured  women  spoke  French,  Spanish,  and 
English,  as  their  customers  demanded.* 

*[_From  the  New  Orleans  Picayune, .] 

"  FIFTY  DOLLARS  REWARD. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  about  two  months 
ago,  a  bright  mulatto  girl,  named  Mary,  about  twenty-five  years  of  age,  almost 
white,  and  reddish  hair,  front  teeth  out,  a  cut  on  her  upper  lip;  about  five  feet 
five  inches  high ;  has  a  scar  on  her  forehead  ;  she  passes  for  free ;  talks  French, 
Italian,  Dutch,  English,  and  Spanish. 

"ANDRE  GRASSO. 
"  Upper  side  of  St.  Mary's  Market." 


LOUISIANA.  295 

Three  taverns,  bearing  the  sign  of  "  The  Pig  and  Whistle," 
indicated  the  recent  English,  a  cabaret  to  the  Universal  Ke- 
public,  with  a  red  flag,  the  French,  and  the  Grasthaus  zum 
Rheinplatz,  the  Teutonic  contributions  to  the  strength  of  our 
nation.  A  policeman,  with  the  richest  Irish  brogue,  directed 
me  back  to  the  St.  Charles. 

In  front  of  a  large  New  York  clothing  store,  twenty-two 
negroes  were  standing  in  a  row.  Each  wore  a  blue  suit, 
and  a  black  hat,  and  each  held  a  bundle  of  additional 
clothing,  and  a  pair  of  shoes,  in  his  hands.  They  were 
all,  but  one,  who  was  probably  a  driver  having  charge  of  them, 
young  men,  not  over  twenty-five,  and  the  majority,  I  should 
think,  between  eighteen  and  twenty-two  years  of  age.  Their 
owner  was  probably  in  the  clothing  store,  settling  for  the  out- 
fit he  had  purchased  for  them,  and  they  were  waiting  to  be 
led  to  the  steamboat,  which  should  convey  them  to  his  plan- 
tation. They  were  silent  and  sober,  like  a  file  of  soldiers 
standing  at  ease  ;  and,  perhaps,  were  gratified  by  the  admi- 
ration their  fine  manly  figures  and  uniform  dress  obtained 
from  the  passers  by. 

"  Well,  now,  that  ar's  the  likeliest  lot  of  niggers  I  ever  see," 
said  one,  to  me.  "  Some  feller's  bin  roun',  and  just  made  his 
pick  out  o'  all  the  jails*  in  Orleens.  Must  ha'  cost  him  a  heap 
o'  rocks.  I  don't  reckon  thar's  a  nigger  in  that  crowd  that 
wouldn't  fetch  twelve  hundred  dollars,  at  a  vandue.  Twenty 
thousand  dollars  wouldn'  be  no  banter  for  'em.  Dam'd  if  they 
aint  just  the  best  gang  o'  cotton-hands  ever  I  see.  Give  me 
half  on  'em,  and  I'd  sign  off— wouldn'  ask  nothing  more." 

Louisiana  or  Texas,  thought  I,  pays  Virginia  twenty  odd 
thousand  dollars  for  that  lot  of  boite  and  muscle.  Virginia's 
interest  in  continuing  the  business  may  be  imagined,  especially 

*  The  private  establishments,  in  which  stocks  of  slaves  are  kept  for  sale  in  New 
Orleans,  are  called  jails. 


296  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

if,  in  their  place,  could  come  free  labourers,  to  help  her  people 
at  the  work  she  needs  to  have  done ;  but  where  is  the  advan- 
tage of  it  to  Louisiana,  and  especially  to  Texas  ?  Yonder  is 
a  steamboat  load  of  the  same  material — bone  and  muscle — 
which,  at  the  same  sort  of  valuation,  is  worth  two  hundred  and 
odd  thousand  dollars ;  and  off  it  goes,  past  Texas,  through 
Louisiana — far  away  yet,  up  the  river,  and  Wisconsin  or  Iowa 
will  get  it,  two  hundred  thousand  dollars'  worth,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  thalers  and  silver  groschen,  in  those  strong 
chests — all  for  nothing. 

In  ten  years'  time,  how  many  mills,  and  bridges,  and  school- 
houses,  and  miles  of  railroad,  will  the  Germans  have  built  ? 
And  how  much  cloth  and  fish  will  they  want  from  Massachu- 
setts, iron  from  Pennsylvania,  and  tin  from  Banca.  hemp  from 
Kussia,  tea  from  China,  and  coffee  from  Brazil,  fruit  from 
Spain,  wine  from  Ohio,  and  oil  and  gold  from  the  Pacific,  silk 
from  France,  sugar  from  Louisiana,  cotton  from  Texas,  and 
rags  from  Italy,  lead  from  Illinois,  notions  from  Connecticut, 
and  machines  from  New  Jersey,  and  intelligence  from  every- 
where ? 

And  how  much  of  all  these  things  will  the  best  two  hundred 
Virginians  that  Louisiana  can  buy,  at  any  price,  demand  of 
commerce,  in  ten  years  ? 

A  mechanic,  English  by  birth,  who  had  lived  in  New 
Orleans  for  several  years,  always  going  up  the  river  in  the 
summer,  to  escape  the  danger  of  fever  in  the  city,  told  me 
that  he  could  lay  up  money  much  more  rapidly  than  in  New 
York.  The  expenses  of  living  were  not  necessarily  greater 
than  in  New  York.  If  a  man  kept  house,  and  provided  for 
himself,  he  could  live  much"  cheaper  than  at  boarding-houses. 
Many  unmarried  mechanics,  therefore,  lived  with  coloured 
mistresses,  who  were  commonly  vile  and  dishonest.  He  was 
at  a  lx)arding-house,  where  he  paid  four  dollars  a  week.  In 


LOUISIANA.  207 

New  York  he  had  paid  three  dollars,  but  the  board  was  not  as 
good  as  in  New  Orleans.    "  The  reason,"  said  he,  "  that  people 
say  it  costs  so  much  more  to  live  here  than  in  New  York  is 
that  what  they  think  treats  in  New  York,  they  consider  neces- 
saries here.      Everybody  lives  freer,  and  spends  their  money 
more  willingly  here."     When  he  first  came  to  New  Orleans,  a 
New  England  mechanic  came  with  him.    He  supposed  him  to 
have  been  previously  a  man  of  sober  habits ;  but  almost  imme- 
diately after  he  got  to  New  Orleans,  he  got  into  bad  ways,  and 
in  a  few  months  he  was  so  often  drunk,  and  brought  so  much 
scandal  on  their  boarding-house,  that  he  was  turned  out  of  it. 
Soon  after  this,  he  called  on  him,  and  borrowed  two  dollars. 
He  said  he  could  not  live  in  New  Orleans,  it  was  too  expen- 
sive, and  he  was  going  to  Texas.     This  was  several  years 
before,  and  he  had  not  heard  from  him  since.      And  this  he 
said  was  a  very  common  course  with  New  England  boys,  who 
had  been  "  too  carefully  brought  up  at  home,"  when  they  came 
to  New  Orleans.      The  master  mechanics,  who  bought  up 
slaves,  and  took  contracts  for  work,  he  said,  made  more  money 
than  any  others.     They  did  so  because  they  did  very  poor 
work — poorer  than  white  mechanics  could  generally  be  got  to 
do.    But  nearly  all  work  was  done  in  New  Orleans  more  has- 
tily and  carelessly  than  in  New  York,  though  he  thought  it 
was  bad  enough  there.     The  slave-holding  bosses  could  get  no 
white  men  to  work  with  their  slaves,  except  Irishmen  or  Ger- 
mans— no  man  who  had  any  regard  for  his  position  among 
his  fellow-craftsmen  would  ever  let  himself  be  seen  working 
with  a  negro.      He  said  I  could  see  any  day  in  Canal  Street, 
"  a  most  revolting  sight" — Irishmen  waiting  on  negro  masons. 
He  had  seen,  one  morning  as  he  was  going  to  his  work,  a 
negro  carrying  some  mortar,  when  another  negro  hailed  him 
with  a  loud  laugh :  "  Hallo  !  you  is  tunied  Irishman,  is  'ou  ?" 
White  working  men  were  rapidly  displacing  the  slaves  in  all 


298  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

sorts  of  work,  and  he  hoped  and  believed  it  would  not  be  many 
years  before  every  negro  would  be  driven  out  of  the  town. 
He  thought  acclimated  white  men  could  do  more  hard  work 
than  negroes,  even  in  the  hottest  weather,  if  they  were  tempe- 
rate, and  avoided  too  stimulating  food.  That,  he  said,  was 
the  general  opinion  among  those  of  them  who  stayed  over  sum- 
mer. Those  who  drank  much  whisky  and  cordials,  and  kept 
up  old  habits  of  eating,  just  as  if  they  were  in  England,  were 
the  ones  who  complained  most  of  the  climate,  and  who  thought 
white  men  were  not  made  to  work  in  it.  He  had  stayed  as  late 
as  July,  and  returned  in  September,  and  he  never  saw  the 
day  in  which  he  could  not  do  as  much  work  as  he  did  in 
London. 

A  New-Yorker,  whom  I  questioned  about  this,  said :  "I 
have  worked  through  the  very  hottest  weather,  steadily,  day 
after  day,  and  done  more  work  than  any  three  niggers  in  the 
State,  and  been  no  worse  for  it.  A  man  has  only  to  take  some 
care  of  himself." 

Going  to  Lafayette,  on  the  top  of  an  omnibus,  I  heard  an 
Irishman,  somewhat  over-stimulated,  as  Irishmen  are  apt  to 
be,  loudly  declare  himself  an  abolitionist :  a  companion  endea- 
voured in  vain  to  stop  him,  or  make  him  recant,  and  finally 
declared  he  would  not  ride  any  further  with  him  if  he  could 
not  be  more  discreet. 

The  Morehouse  (Louisiana)  Advocate,  in  an  article  abusive 
of  foreigners,  thus  describes  what,  if  foreign  born  working  men 
were  not  generally  so  ignorant  and  easily  imposed  upon  as  they 
are,  would  undoubtedly  be  (although  they  certainly  have  not 
yet  generally  been)  their  sentiments  with  regard  to  Slavery : 

"  The  great  mass  of  foreigners  who  come  to  our  shores  are  labourers, 
and  consequently  come  in  competition  with  slave  labour.  It  is  to  their 
interest  to  abolish  Slavery;  and  we  know  full  well  the  disposition  of  man 
to  promote  all  things  which  advance  his  own  interests.  These  men  come 
from  nations  where  Slavery  is  not  allowed,  and  they  drink  in  abolition 


LOUISIANA.  299 

sentiments  from  tbeir  mothers'  breasts  ;  they  fall  the  white  race"*  entertain 
an  utter  abhorrence  of  being  put  on  a  level  with  blacks,  whether  in  the 
fluid  or  in  the  workshop.  Could  Slavery  be  abolished,  there  would  be  a 
greater  demand  for  labourers,  and  the  prices  of  labour  must  be  greatly 
enhanced.  These  may  be  termed  the  internal  evidences  of  the  abolitionism- 
of  foreigners. 

"But  we  may  find  near  home  facts  to  corroborate  these  'internal' 
evidences :  It  is  well  known  that  there  exists  a  great  antipathy  among 
the  draymen  and  rivermen  of-New  Orleans  (who  are  almost  to  a  man 
foreigners)  to  the  participation  of  slaves  in  these  branches  of  industry." 

It  is  obvious  that  free  men  have  very  much  gained  the  field 
of  labour  in  New  Orleans  to  themselves.  The  majority  of  the 
cartmen,  hackney-coach  men,  porters,  railroad  hands,  public 
waiters,  and  common  labourers,  as  well  as  of  skilled  mechanics, 
appear  to  be  white  men  ;  and  of  the  negroes  employed  in  those 
avocations  a  considerable  proportion  are  free. 

This  is  the  case  here  more  than  in  any  other  town  in  the 
South,  although  the  climate  is  torrid,  and  inconvenient  or  dan- 
gerous to  strangers ;  because  New  Orleans  is  more  extensively 
engaged  in  commerce  than  they  are,  and  because  there  is,  by 
the  passing  and  sojourning  immigration  from  Europe,  con- 
stantly in  the  city  a  sufficient  number  of  free  labourers  to 
sustain,  by  competition  and  association  with  each  other,  the 
habits  of  free-labour  communities.  It  is  plainly  perceptible 
that  the  white  working  men  in.  New  Orleans  have  more  busi- 
ness-like manners,  and  more  assured  self-respect,  than  those 
of  smaller  towns.  They  are  even  not  without  some  esprit  d& 
corps. 

As  Commerce,  or  any  high  form  of  industry  requires  intel- 
ligence in  its  labourers,  slaves  can  never  be  brought  together 
in  dense  communities,  but  their  intelligence  will  increase  to  a 
degree  dangerous  to  those  who  enjoy  the  benefit  of  then* 
labour.  The  slave  must  be  kept  dependent,  day  by  day,  upon 
his  master  for  his  daily  bread,  or  he  will  find,  and  will  declare 
his  independence,  in  all  respects,  of  him.  This  condition  dis- 


300  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

qualifies  the  slave  for  any  but  the  simplest  and  rudest  forms  of 
labour ;  and  every  attempt  to  bring  his  labour  into  competition 
with  free  labour  can  only  be  successful  at  the  hazard  of  insur- 
"rection.  Hundreds  of  slaves  in  New  Orleans  must  be  con- 
stantly reflecting  and  saying  to  one  another,  "  I  am  as  capable 
of  taking  care  of  myself  as  this  Irish  hod-carrier,  or  this  Ger- 
man market-gardener ;  why  can't  I  have  the  enjoyment  of  my 
labour  as  well  as  they  ?  I  am  as  capable  of  taking  care  of  my 
own  family  as  much  as  they  of  theirs ;  why  should  I  be  sub- 
ject to  have  them  taken  from  me  by  those  other  men  who  call 
themselves  our  owners  ?  Our  children  have  as  much  brains 
as  the  children  of  these  white  neighbours  of  ours,  who  not  long 
ago  were  cooks  and  waiters  at  the  hotels  ;  why  should  they  be 
spurned  from  the  school-rooms  ?  I  helped  to  build  the  school- 
house,  and  have  not  been  paid  for  it.  One  thing  I  know,  if  I 
can't  have  my  rights,  I  can  have  my  pleasures ;  and  if  they 
won't  give  me  wages  I  can  take  them." 

That  this  influence  of  association  in  labour  with  free- men 
cannot  fail  to  be  appreciated  by  intelligent  observers,  will  be 
evident  from  the  following  paragraph  from  ihe  New  Orleans 
Crescent,  although  it  was  probably  written  to  show  only  the 
amusing  and  picturesque  aspect  of  the  slave  community : — 

"  GUINEA-LIKE. — Passing  along  Baronne  street,  between  Perdido  and 
Poydras  streets,  any  Sunday  afternoon,  the  white  passer-by  might  easily 
suppose  himself  in  Guinea,  Gaffraria,  or  any  other  thickly-peopled  region 
in  the  land  of  Ham.  Where  the  darkies  all  come  from,  what  they  do 
there,  or  where  they  go  to,  constitute  a  problem  somewhat  beyond  our 
algebra.  It  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  nigger  exchange.  We  know  there  are  in 
that  vicinity  a  coloured  church,  coloured  ice-cream  saloon,  coloured  re- 
staurant, coloured  coffee-houses,  and  a  coloured  barber-shop,  which,  we 
have  heard  say,  has  a  back  communication  with  one  of  the  groggeries,  for  the 
benefit  of  slaves ;  but  as  the  police  haven't  found  it  out  yet,  we  suppose  it 
^in't  so.  However,  if  the  ebony  dandies  who  attend  Sunday  evening  'change, 
would  keep  within  their  various  retreats,  or  leave  a  path  about  three  feet  wide 
on  the  side-walk,  for  the  free  passage  of  people  who  aje  so  unlucky  as  to 
be  white,  we  wouldn't  complain  ;  but  to  have  to  elbow  one's  way  through 


LOUISIANA.  301 

a  crowd  of  woolly-heads  on  such  a  day  as  yesterday,  their  natural  muski- 
ness  made  more  villanous  by  the  fumes  of  whisky,  is  too  much  for 
delicate  olfactories  like  ours.  A  fight,  last  evening,  between  two  white 
men  at  one  of  the  groggeries,  afforded  much  edification  to  the  darkies 
standing  around,  and  seemed  to  confirm  them  in  their  opinion,  that  white 
folks,  after  all,  ain't  much." 

Similar  complaints  to  the  following,  which  I  take  from  the 
New  Orleans  Crescent,  I  have  heard,  or  seen  in  the  journals, 
at  Richmond,  Savannah,  Louisville,  and  most  other  large 
manufacturing,  or  commercial  towns  of  the  South. 

'•PASSES  TO  NEGROES. — Something  must  be  done  to  regulate  and  pre- 
scribe the  manner  in  which  passes  shall  be  given  to  slaves.  This  is  a 
matter  that  should  no  longer  be  shirked  or  avoided.  The  Common  Council 
should  act  promptly.  The  slave  population  of  this  city  is  already  demoral- 
ized to  a  deplorable  extent,  all  owing  to  the  indiscriminate  licence  and 
indulgence  extended  them  by  masters,  mistresses,  and  guardians,  and  to 
the  practice  of  forging  passes,  which  has  now  become  a  regular  business  in 
New  Orleans.  The  greater  portion  of  the  evil  flows  from  forged  passes. 
As  things  now  stand,  any  negro  can  obtain  a  pass  for  four  bits  or  a  dollar, 
from  miserable  wretches  who  obtain  a  living  by  such  infamous  practices. 
The  consequence  is  that  hundreds  spend  their  nights  drinking,  carousing, 
gambling,  and  contracting  the  worst  of  habits,  which  not  only  make  them 
useless  to  their  owners,  but  dangerous  pests  to  society.  We  know  of  many 
negroes,  completely  ruined,  morally  and  physically,  by  such  causes.  The 
inherent  vice  in  the  negro  character  always  comes  out  when  unrestrained, 
and  there  is  no  degradation  too  low  for  him  to  descend. 

"  Well,  for  the  remedy  to  cure  this  crying  evil.  Prosecuting  the  forgers 
is  out  of  the  question ;  for  where  one  conviction  could  be  obtained,  thou- 
sands of  fraudulent  passes  would  be  written.  Slave  evidence  weighs  nothing 
against  tr hiie  forgers  and  scoundrels.  Hence  the  necessity  of  adopting  some 
other  mode  of  prevention.  It  has  been  suggested  to  us,  that  if  the  Council 
would  adopt  a  form  for  passes,  different  each  month,  to  be  obtained  by 
masters  from  the  Chief  of  Police,  exclusively,  that  a  great  deal  of  good 
would  be  at  once  accomplished.  We  have  no  doubt  of  it.  Further,  we 
believe  that  all  owners  and  guardians  would  cheerfully  submit  to  the 
inconvenience  in  order  to  obtain  so  desirable  an  end.  We  trust  the  Com- 
mon Council  will  pay  some  little  attention  to  these  suggestions." 

How  many  men,  accustomed  to  the  close  calculations  neces- 
sary to  successful  enterprises,  can  listen  to  these  suggestions, 
without  asking  themselves  whether  a  system,  that  requires  to 


302  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

be  sustained  by  such  inconvenient  defences,  bad  not  better  be 
thrown  up  altogether  ? 

First  and  last,  I  spent  some  weeks  in  New  Orleans  and  its 
vicinity.  I  doubt  if  there  is  a  city  in  the  world,  where  the 
resident  population  has  been  so  divided  in  its  origin,  or  where 
there  is  such  a  variety  in  the  tastes,  habits,  manners,  and 
moral  codes  of  the  citizens.  Although  this  injures  civic  enter- 
prise— which  the  peculiar  situation  of  the  city  greatly  demands 
to  be  directed  to  means  of  cleanliness,  convenience,  comfort, 
and  health — it  also  gives  a  greater  scope  to  the  working  of 
individual  enterprise,  taste,  genius,  and  conscience ;  so  that 
nowhere  are  the  higher  qualities  of  man— as  displayed  in 
generosity,  hospitality,  benevolence,  and  courage — better  de- 
veloped, or  the  lower  qualities,  likening  him  to  a  beast,  less 
interfered  with,  by  law  or  the  action  of  public  opinion. 

There  is  one,  among  the  multitudinous  classifications  of 
society  in  New  Orleans,  which  is  a  very  peculiar  and  charac- 
teristic result  of  the  prejudices,  vices,  and  customs  of  the 
various  elements  of  colour,  class,  and  nation,  which  have  been 
there  brought  together. 

I  refer  to  a  class  composed  of  the  illegitimate  offspring  of 
white  men  and  coloured  women  (mulattoes  or  quadroons),  who, 
from  habits  of  early  life,  the  advantages  of  education,  and  the 
use  of  wealth,  are  too  much  superior  to  the  negroes,  in  gene- 
ral, to  associate  with  them,  and  are  not  allowed  by  law,  or  the 
popular  prejudice,  to  marry  white  people.  The  girls  are  fre- 
quently sent  to  Paris  to  be  educated,  and  are  very  accom- 
plished. They  are  generally  pretty,  often  handsome.  I  have 
rarely,  if  ever,  met  more  beautiful  women  than  one  or  two 
whom  I  saw  by  chance,  in  the  streets.  They  are  better 
formed,  and  have  a  more  graceful  and  elegant  carriage  than 
Americans  in  general,  while  they  seem  to  have  commonly  in- 
herited or  acquired  much  of  the  taste  and  skill,  in  the  selection 


LOUISIANA.  303 

and  arrangement,  and  the  way  of  wearing  dresses  and  orna- 
ments, that  is  the  especial  distinction  of  the  women  of  Paris. 
Their  beauty  and  attractiveness  being  their  fortune,  they  cul- 
tivate and  cherish  with  diligence  every  charm  or  accomplish- 
ment they  are  possessed  of. 

Of  course,  men  are  attracted  by  them,  associate  with  them, 
are  captivated,  and  become  attached  to  them,  and,  not  being 
able  to  marry  them  legally,  and  with  the  usual  forms  and 
securities  for  constancy,  make  such  arrangements  "  as  can  be 
agreed  upon."  When  a  man  makes  a  declaration  of  love  to  a 
gii-1  of  this  class,  she  will  admit  or  deny,  as  the  case  may  be, 
her  happiness  in  receiving  it ;  but,  supposing  she  is  favourably 
disposed,  she  will  usually  refer  the  applicant  to  her  mother. 
The  mother  inquires,  like  the  "  Countess  of  Kew,"  into  the 
circumstances  of  the  suitor ;  ascertains  whether  he  is  able  to 
maintain  a  family,  and,  if  satisfied  with  him,  in  these  and 
other  respects,  requires  from  him  security  that  he  will 
support  her  daughter  in  a  style  suitable  to  the  habits  in 
which  she  has  been  bred,  and  that,  if  he  should  ever  leave 
her,  he  will  give  her  a  certain  sum  for  her  future  support, 
and  a  certain  additional  sum  for  each  of  the  children  she  shall 
then  have. 

The  wealth,  thus  secured,  will,  of  course,  vary — as  in 
society  with  higher  assumptions  of  morality — with  the  value 
of  the  kdy  in  the  market ;  that  is,  with  her  attractiveness, 
and  the  number  and  value  of  other  suitors  she  may  have, 
or  may  reasonably  expect.  Of  course,  I  do  not  mean  that 
love  has  nothing  at  all  to  do  with  it ;  but  love  is  sedulously 
restrained,  and  held  firmly  in  hand,  until  the  road  of  compe- 
tency is  seen  to  be  clear,  with  less  humbug  than  our  English 
custom  requires  about  it.  Everything  being  satisfactorily 
arranged,  a  tenement  in  a  certain  quarter  of  the  town  is  usu- 
ally taken,  and  the  couple  move  into  it  and  go  to  housekeeping 


304  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

— living  as  if  they  were  married.  The  woman  is  not,  of 
course,  to  be  wholly  deprived  of  the  society  of  others — her 
former  acquaintances  are  continued,  and  she  sustains  her 
relations  as  daughter,  sister,  and  friend.  Of  course,  too,  her 
husband  (she  calls  him  so)  will  be  likely  to  continue,  also, 
more  or  less  in,  and  form  a  part  of,  this  kind  of  society. 
There  are  parties  and  balls — bals  masques — and  all  the  move- 
ments and  customs  of  other  fashionable  society,  which  they 
can  enjoy  in  it,  if  they  wish.*  The  women  of  this  sort  are 
represented  to  be  exceedingly  affectionate  in  disposition,  and 
constant  beyond  reproach. 

During  all  the  time  a  man  sustains  this  relation,  he  will 
commonly  be  moving,  also,  in  reputable  society  on  the  other 
side  of  the  town  ;  not  improbably,  eventually  he  marries,  and 
has  a  family  establishment  elsewhere.  Before  doing  this,  he 
may  separate  from  his  placfe  (so  she  is  termed) .  If  so,  he 
pays  her  according  to  agreement,  and  as  much  more,  perhaps, 
as  his  affection  for  her,  or  his  sense  of  the  cruelty  of  the  pro- 
ceeding, may  lead  him  to ;  and  she  has  the  world  before  her 
again,  in  the  position  of  a  widow.  Many  men  continue  for  a 

*  "THE    GLOBE   BALL    ROOM, 
Corner  of  St.  Claude  and  St.  Peter  Streets,  abreast  of  the  Old  Basin, 

WILL    OPEN  THIS  EVENING,  October   16,  when  a  Society  Ball  will  be 
given. 

No  ladies  admitted  without  masks. 

Gentlemen,  fifty  cents — Ladies,  gratis. 

Doors  open  at  9J  o'clock.     Ball  to  commence  at  10  o'clock. 

No  person  admitted  with  weapons,  by  order  of  the  Council. 

A  superior  orchestra  has  been  engaged  for  the  season. 

The  public  may  be  assured  of  the  most  strict  order,  as  there  will  be  at  all  times 
an  efficient  police  in  attendance. 

Attached  to  the  establishment  is  a  superior  Bar,  well  stocked  with  wines  and 
liquors ;  also,  a  Restaurant,  where  may  be  had  all  such  delicacies  as  the  market 
affords. 

All  ladies  are  requested  to  procure  free  tickets  in  the  Mask  Room,  as  no  lady 
will  l>e  admitted  mto  the  ball-room  without  one. 

A.  WHITLOCK,  Manager." 


LOUISIANA.  305 

long  time,  to  support  both  establishments — particularly 
their  legal  marriage  is  one  de  convenance.  But  many  others 
form  so  strong  attachments,  that  the  relation  is  never  discon- 
tinued, but  becomes,  indeed,  that  of  marriage,  except  that  it 
is  not  legalized  or  solemnized.  These  men  leave  their  estate, 
at  death,  to  their  children,  to  whom  they  may  have  previously 
given  every  advantage  of  education  they  could  command. 
What  becomes  of  the  boys,  I  am  not  informed ;  the  girls,  some- 
times, are  removed  to  other  countries,  where  their  colour  does 
not  prevent  their  living  reputable  lives;  but,  of  course, 
mainly  continue  in  the  same  society,  and  are  fated  to  a  life 
similar  to  that  of  their  mothers. 

I  have  described  this  custom  as  it  was  described  to  me ;  I 
need  hardly  say,  in  only  its  best  aspects.  The  crime  and 
heart-breaking  sorrow  that  must  frequently  result  from  it,  must 
be  evident  to  every  reflective  reader. 

A  gentleman,  of  New  England  education,  gave  me  the 
following  account  of  his  acquaintance  with  the  quadroon 
society.  On  first  coming  to  New  Orleans,  he  was  drawn  into 
the  social  circles  usually  frequented  by  New  England  people, 
and  some  time  afterwards  was  introduced  by  a  friend  to  a 
quadroon  family,  in  which  there  were  three  pretty  and  accom- 
plished young  women.  They  were  intelligent  and  well 
informed ;  their  musical  taste  was  especially  well  cultivated ; 
they  were  well  read  in  the  literature  of  the  day,  and  their 
conversation  upon  it  was  characterized  by  good  sense  and 
refined  discrimination.  He  never  saw  any  indication  of  a 
want  of  purity  of  character  or  delicacy  of  feeling.  He  was 
much  attracted  by  them,  and  for  some  time  visited  them  very 
frequently.  Having  then  discontinued  his  intimacy,  at  length 
one  of  the  girls  asked  him  why  he  did  not  come  to  see  them 
as  often  as  he  had  formerly  done.  He  frankly  replied,  that  be 
had  found  their  society  so  fascinating,  that  he  had  thougH  it 

VOL.  I.  X 


306  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

best  to  restrict  himself  in  the  enjoyment  of  it,  lest  it  should 
become  necessary  to  his  happiness  ;  and  out  of  regard  to  his 
general  plans  of  life,  and  the  feelings  of  his  friends,  he  could 
not  permit  himself  to  indulge  the  purpose  to  be  united  to  one 
of  them,  according  to  the  usual  custom  with  their  class.  The 
young  woman  was  evidently  much  pained,  but  not  at  all 
offended,  and  immediately  acknowledged  and  commended  the 
propriety  and  good  sense  of  his  resolution. 

One  reason  which  leads  this  way  of  living  to  be  frequently 
adopted  by  unmarried  men,  who  come  to  New  Orleans  to 
carry  on  business,  is,  that  it  is  much  cheaper  than  living  at 
hotels  and  boarding-houses.  As  no  young  man  ordinarily 
dare  think  of  marrying,  until  he  has  made  a  fortune  to  sup- 
port the  extravagant  style  of  housekeeping,  and  gratify  the 
expensive  tastes  of  young  women,  as  fashion  is  now  educating 
them,  many  are  obliged  to  make  up  their  minds  never  to 
marry.  Such  a  one  undertook  to  show  me  that  it  was 
cheaper  for  him  to  placer  than  to  live  in  any  other  way  which 
could  be  expected  of  him  in  New  Orleans.  He  hired,  at  a  low 
rent,  two  apartments  in  the  older  part  of  the  town ;  \i\splacee 
did  not,  except  occasionally,  require  a  servant ;  she  did  the 
marketing,  and  performed  all  the  ordinary  duties  of  house- 
keeping herself;  she  took  care  of  hi&  clothes,  and  in  every 
way  was  economical  and  saving  in  her  habits ;  it  being  her 
interest,  if  her  affection  for  him  were  not  sufficient,  to  make 
him  as  much  comfort  and  as  little  expense  as  possible,  that  he 
might  be  the  more  strongly  attached  to  her,  and  have  the 
less  occasion  to  leave  her.  He  concluded  by  assuring  me 
that  whatever  might  be  said  against  it,  it  certainly  was  better 
than  the  way  in  which  most  young  men  lived  who  depended 
on  salaries  in  New  York. 

It  is  asserted  by  Southerners  who  have  lived  at  the  North, 
and  Northerners  who  lived  at  the  South,  that  although  the 


LOUISIANA.  gng 

facilities  for  licentiousness  are  much  greater  at  the  South,  th, 
evil  of  licentiousness  is  much  greater  at  the  North.  ?Not 
because  the  average  standard  of  "respectable  position"  re- 
quires a  less  expenditure  at  the  South,  for  the  contrary  is  the 
case.*  But  it  is  said  licentiousness  at  the  North  is  far  more 
captivating,  irresistible,  and  ruinous  than  at  the  South.  Its 
very  intrigues,  cloaks,  hazards,  and  expenses,  instead  of  re- 
pressing the  passions  of  young  men,  exasperate  them,  and 
increase  its  degrading  effect  upon  their  character,  producing 
hypocrisy,  interfering  with  high  ambitions,  destroying  self- 
respect,  causing  the  worst  possible  results  to  their  health,  and 
giving  them  habits  which  are  inimical  to  future  domestic 
contentment  and  virtue. 

Possibly  there  is  some  ground  for  this  assertion  with  regard 
to  young  men  in  towns,  though  in  rural  life  the  advantage  of 
the  North,  I  believe,  is  incomparable. 

Mrs.  Douglass,  a  Virginia  woman,  who  was  tried,  con- 
victed, and  punished,  a  year  or  two  since,  for  teaching  a 
number  of  slaves  to  read,  contrary  to  law,  says  in  a  letter 
from  her  jail— 

"  Tiiis  subject  demands  the  attention,  not  only  of  the  religious  popula- 
tion, but  of  statesmen  and  law-makers.  It  is  one  great  evil  hanging  over 
the  Southern  Slave  States,  destroying  domestic  happiness  and  the  peace 
of  thousands.  It  is  summed  up  in  the  single  word — amalgamation.  This, 
and  this  only,  causes  the  vast  extent  of  ignorance,  degradation,  and  crime 
that  lies  like  a  black  eloud  over  the  whole  South.  And  the  practice  is 
more  general  than  even  the  Southerners  are  willing  to  allow. 

"  Neither  is  it  to  be  found  only  in  the  lower  order  of  the  white  popula- 
tion. It  pervades  the  entire  society.  Its  followers  are  to  be  found  among 
all  ranks,  occupations,  and  professions.  The  white  mothers  and  daughters 
of  the  South  have  suffered  under  it  for  years-^have  seen  their  dearest 
affections  trampled  upon — their  hopes  of  domestic  happiness  destroyed,  and 


*  A  gentleman  in  an  inland  Southern  town  said  to  me,  "  I  have  now  but  one 
servant ;  if  I  should  marry,  I  should  be  obliged  to  buy  three  more,  and  that  alone 
would  withdraw  from  my  capital  at  least  three  thousand  dollars." 


306  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

],.cir  future  lives  embittered,  even  to  agony,  by  those  who  should  be  all  in 
all  to  them,  as  husbands,  sons,  and  brothers.  I  cannot  use  too  strong 
language  in  reference  to  this  subject,  for  I  know  that  it  will  meet  with  a 
heartfelt  response  from  every  Southern  woman." 

A  negress  was  hung  this  year  in  Alahama,  for  the  murder 
of  her  child.  At  her  trial  she  confessed  her  guilt.  She  said 
her  owner  was  the  father  of  the  child,  and  that  her  mistress 
knew  it,  and  treated  it  so  cruelly  in  consequence,  that  she  had 
killed  it  to  save  it  from  further  suffering,  and  also  to  remove  a 
provocation  to  her  own  ill-treatment. 

A  large  planter  told,  as  a  reason  for  sending  his  boys  to  the 
North  to  he  educated,  that  there  was  no  possibility  of  their 
being  brought  up  in  decency  at  home.  Another  planter  told 
me  that  he  was  intending  to  move  to  a  free  country  on  this 
account.  He  said  that  the  practice  was  not  occasional  or 
general,  it  was  universal.  "  Theye  is  not,"  he  said,  "  a  likely- 
looking  black  girl  in  this  State  that  is  not  the  concubine  of  a 
white  man.  There  is  not  an  old  plantation  in  which  the 
grandchildren  of  the  owner  are  not  whipped  in  the  field  by  his 

overseer.  I  cannot  bear  that  the  blood  of  the  should 

run  in  the  veins  of  slaves."  He  was  of  an  old  Scotch  family. 

New  Orleans,  Sunday. — Walking  this  morning  through 
a  rather  mean  neighbourhood  I  was  attracted,  by  a  loud 
chorus  singing,  to  the  open  door  of  a  chapel  or  small  church. 
I  found  a  large  congregation  of  negroes  assembled  within,  and 
the  singing  being  just  then  concluded,  and  a  negro  preacher 
commencing  a  sermon,  I  entered  an  empty  pew  near  the 
entrance.  I  had  no  sooner  taken  a  seat  than  a  negro  usher 
came  to  me,  and,  in  the  most  polite  manner,  whispered — 

"  Won't  you  please  to  let  me  give  you  a  seat  higher  up, 
master,  'long  o'  tudder  white  folks  ?" 

I  followed  him  to  the  uppermost  seat,  facing  the  pulpit, 
where  there  were  three  other  white  persons.  One  of  them 


LOUISIANA.  309 

was  a  woman — old,  very  plain,  and  not  as  well  dressed  as 
many  of  the  negroes  ;  another  looked  like  a  ship's  officer,  and 
was  probably  a  member  of  the  police  force  in  undress — what 
we  call  a  spy,  when  we  detect  it  in  Europe ;  both  of  these 
remained  diligently  and  gravely  attentive  during  the  service  ; 
the  third  was  a  foreign-looking  person,  very  flashily  dressed 
and  sporting  a  yellow-headed  walking-stick,  and  much  cheap 
jewelry. 

The  remainder  of  the  congregation  consisted  entirely  of 
coloured  persons,  many  of  them,  however,  with  light  hair  and 
hardly  any  perceptible  indications  of  having  African  blood. 
On  the  step  of  the  chancel  were  a  number  of  children,  and 
among  these  one  of  the  loveliest  young  girls  that  I  ever  saw. 
She  was  a  light  mulatto,  and  had  an  expression  of  unusual 
intelligence  and  vivacity.  During  the  service  she  frequently 
smiled,  I  thought  derisively,  at  the  emotions  and  excitement 
betrayed  by  the  older  people  about  her.  She  was  elegantly 
dressed,  and  was  accompanied  by  a  younger  sister,  who  was  also 
dressed  expensively  and  in  good  taste,  but  who  was  a  shade 
darker,  though  much  removed  from  the  blackness  of  the  true 
negro,  and  of  very  good  features  and  pleasant  expression. 

The  preacher  was  nearly  black,  with  close  woolly  hair. 
His  figure  was  slight,  he  seemed  to  be  about  thirty  years  of 
age,  and  the  expression  of  his  face  indicated  a  refined  and 
delicately  sensitive  nature.  His  eye  was  very  fine,  bright, 
deep,  and  clear ;  his  voice  and  manner  generally  quiet  and 
impressive. 

The  text  was,  "  I  have  fought  the  good  fight,  I  have  kept 
the  faith ;  henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown  of 
glory ;"  and  the  sermon  was  an  appropriate  and  generally 
correct  explanation  of  the  customs  of  the  Olympian  games,  and 
a  proper  and  often  eloquent  application  of  the  figure  to  the 
Christian  course  of  life.  Much  of  the  language  was  highly 


310  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

metaphorical ;  the  figures  long,  strange,  and  complicated,  yet 
sometimes,  however,  beautiful.  Words  were  frequently  mis- 
placed, and  their  meaning  evidently  misapprehended,  while 
the  grammar  and  pronunciation  were  sometimes  such  as  to 
make  the  idea  intended  to  be  conveyed  by  the  speaker  in- 
comprehensible to  me.  Vulgarisms  and  slang  phrases  occa- 
sionally occurred,  but  evidently  without  any  consciousness 
of  impropriety  on  the  part  of  the  speaker  or  his  congre- 
gation. 

As  soon  as  I  had  taken  my  seat,  my  attention  was  attracted 
by  an  old  negro  near  me,  whom  I  supposed  for  some  time  to  bo 
suffering  under  some  nervous  complaint;  he  trembled,  his 
teeth  chattered,  and  his  face,  at  intervals,  was  convulsed. 
He  soon  began  to  respond  aloud  to  the  sentiments  of  the 
preacher,  in  such  words  as  these:  "  Oh,  yes  !""  That's  it, 
that's  it !"  "  Yes,  yes — glory — yes  !"  and  similar  expressions 
could  be  heard  from  all  parts  of  the  house  whenever  the 
speaker's  voice  was  unusually  solemn,  or  his  language  and 
manner  eloquent  or  excited. 

Sometimes  the  outcries  and  responses  were  not  confined  to 
ejaculations  of  this  kind,  but  shouts,  and  groans,  terrific 
shrieks,  and  indescribable  expressions  of  ecstacy — of  pleasure 
or  agony  —  and  even  stamping,  jumping,  and  clapping  of 
hands  were  added.  The  tumult  often  resembled  that  of  an 
excited  political  meeting ;  and  I  was  once  surprised  to  find  my 
own  muscles  all  stretched,  as  if  ready  for  a  struggle — my  face 
glowing,  and  my  feet  stamping — having  been  infected  uncon- 
sciously, as  men  often  are,  with  instinctive  bodily  sympathy 
with  the  excitement  of  the  crowd.  So  wholly  unintellectual 
was  the  basis  of  this  excitement,  however,  that  I  could  not, 
when  my  mind  retroverted  to  itself,  find  any  connection  or 
meaning  in  the  phrases  of  the  speaker  that  remained  in  my 
memory ;  and  I  have  no  doubt  it  was  his  "  action  "  rather 


LOUISIANA.  311 

than  liis  sentiments,  that  had  given  rise  to  the  excitement  of 
the  congregation. 

I  took  notes  as  well  as  I  could  of  a  single  passage  of  the 
sermon.  The  preacher  having  said  that  among  the  games  of 
the  arena,  were  "  raaslin  "  (wrestling)  and  boxing,  and  de- 
scribed how  a  combatant,  determined  to  win  the  prize,  would 
come  boldly  up  to  his  adversary  and  stand  square  before  him, 
looking  him  straight  in  the  eyes,  and  while  he  guarded  him- 
self with  one  hand,  would  give  him  a  "  lick"  with  the  other, 
continued  in  these  words :  "  Then  would  he  stop,  and  turn 
away  his  face,  and  let  the  adversary  hit  back?  No,  my 
brethren,  no,  no  !  he'd  follow  up  his  advantage,  and  give  him 
another  lick ;  and  if  he  fell  back,  he'd  keep  close  after  him, 
and  not  stop  ! — and  not  faint ! — not  be  content  with  merely 
driving  him  back! — but  he'd  persevere  !  (yes,  glory!)  and 
hit  him  again  !  (that's  it,  hit  him  again !  hit  him  again ! 
oh,  glory  !  hi !  hi !  glory  !)  drive  him  into  the  corner  !  and 
never,  never  stop  till  he  had  him  down  !  (glory,  glory,  glory  !) 
and  he  had  got  his  foot  on  his  neck,  and  the  crown  of  wild 
olive  leaves  was  placed  upon  his  head  by  the  lord  of  the 
games.  (Ha !  ha  !  glory  to  the  Lord !  etc.)  It  was  the 
custom  of  the  Olympian  games,  my  brethren,  for  the  victor  to 
be  crowned  with  a  crown  of  wild  olive  leaves ;  but  sometimes, 
after  all,  it  wouldn't  be  awarded  right,  because  the  lord  of  the 
games  was  a  poor,  frail,  erroneous  man,  and  maybe  he  couldn't 
see  right,  or  maybe  he  wasn't  an  honest  man,  and  would  have 
his  favourites  among  the  combatants,  and  if  his  favourite  was 
beaten,  he  would  not  allow  it,  but  would  declare  that  he  was 
the  victor,  and  the  crown  would  descend  on  his  head  (glory  !') 
But  there  ain't  no  danger  of  that  with  our  fight  with  the 
world,  for  our  Lord  is  throned  in  justice.  (Glory  ! — oh,  yes  ! 
yes  ! — sweet  Lord  !  sweet  Lord  !)  He  seeth  in  secret,  and 
he  knoweth  all  things,  and  there's  no  chance  for  a  mistake, 


312  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

and  if  we  only  will  just  persevere  and  conquer,  and  conquer 
and  persevere  (yes,  sir  !  oh,  Lord,  yes  !)  and  persevere — not 
for  a  year,  or  for  two  year,  or  ten  year ;  nor  for  seventy  year, 
perhaps  ;  but  if  we  persevere — (yes  !  yes  !) — if  we  persevere 
—(oh !  Lord  !  help  us !) — if  we  persevere  unto  the  end — 
(oh!  oh!  glory!  glory!  glory!) — until  he  calls  us  home! 
(Frantic  shouting.)  Henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  us  a 
crown  of  immortal  glory — (Ha  !  ha  !  HA  !) — not  a  crown 
of  wild  olive  leaves  that  begin  to  droop  as  soon  as  they  touch 
our  brow,  (oh !  oh  !  oh !)  but  a  crown  of  immortal  glory ! 
That  fadeth  not  away !  Never  begins  to  droop !  But  is 
immortal  in  the  heavens !"  (Tremendous  uproar,  many  of 
the  congregation  on  their  feet,  and  uttering  cries  and  shrieks 
impossible  to  be  expressed  in  letters.)  The  shabby  gentleman 
by  my  side,  who  had  been  asleep,  suddenly  awakened,  dropped 
his  stick,  and  shouted  with  all  his  might,  "  Glory  to  the 
Lord!" 

The  body  of  the  house  was  filled  by  the  audience ;  there 
were  galleries,  but  few  persons  were  in  them;  on  one  side, 
two  or  three  boys,  and  on  the  other,  on  the  seat  nearest  the 
pulpit,  about  a  dozen  women. 

The  preacher  was  drawing  his  sermon  to  a  close,  and  offer- 
ing some  sensible  and  pertinent  advice,  soberly  and  calmly, 
and  the  congregation  was  attentive  and  comparatively  quiet, 
when  a  small  old  woman,  perfectly  black,  among  those  in  the 
gallery,  suddenly  rose,  and  began  dancing  and  clapping  her 
hands  ;  at  first  with  a  slow  and  measured  movement,  and  then 
with  increasing  rapidity,  at  the  same  time  beginning  to  shout 
"  ha  I  ha  /"  The  women  about  her  arose  also,  and  tried  to 
hold  her,  as  there  appeared  great  danger  that  she  would  fall 
out  of  the  gallery,  and  those  below  left  their  pews  that  she 
might  not  fall  upon  them. 

The  preacher  continued  his  remarks — much  the  best  part 


LOUISIANA.  31  o 

of  his  sermon — but  it  was  plain  that  they  were  wasted ;  every 
one  was  looking  at  the  dancing  woman  in  the  gallery,  and 
many  were  shoutjng  and  laughing  aloud  (in  joyful  sympathy, 
I  suppose).  His  eye  flashed  as  he  glanced  anxiously  from 
the  woman  to  the  people,  and  then  stopping  in  the  middle  of 
a  sentence,  a  sad  smile  came  over  his  face ;  he  closed  the  book 
and  bowed  his  head  upon  his  hands  to  the  desk.  A  voice  in 
the  congregation  struck  into  a  tune,  and  the  whole  congrega- 
tion rose  and  joined  in  a  roaring  song.  The  woman  was  still 
shouting  and  dancing,  her  head  thrown  back  and  rolling  from 
one  side  to  the  other.  Gradually  her  shout  became  indistinct, 
she  threw  her  arms  wildly  about  instead  of  clapping  her 
hands,  fell  back  into  the  arms  of  her  companions,  then  threw 
herself  forward  and  embraced  those  before  her,  then  tossed 
herself  from  side  to  side,  gasping,  and  finally  sunk  to  the  floor, 
where  she  remained  at  the  end  of  the  song,  kicking,  as  if 
acting  a  death  straggle. 

Another  man  now  rose  in  the  pulpit,  and  gave  out  a  hymn, 
naming  number  and  page,  and  holding  a  book  before  him, 
though  I  thought  he  did  not  read  from  it,  and  I  did  not  see 
another  book  in  the  house.  Having  recited  seven  verses, 
and  repeated  the  number  and  page  of  the  hymn,  he  closed  the 
book  and  commenced  to  address  the  congregation.  He  was  a 
tall,  full-blooded  negro,  very  black,  and  with  a  disgusting  ex- 
pression of  sensuality,  cunning,  and  vanity  in  his  countenance, 
and  a  pompous,  patronizing  manner— a  striking  contrast,  in 
all  respects,  to  the  prepossessing,  quiet,  and  modest  young 
preacher  who  had  preceded  him.  He  was  dressed  in  the 
loosest  form  of  the  fashionable  sack  overcoat,  which  he  threw 
off  presently,  showing  a  white  vest,  gaudy  cravat,  and  a  tight 
cut-away  coat,  linked  together  at  the  breast  with  jet  buttons. 
He  commenced  by  proposing  to  further  elucidate  the  meaning 
of  the  apostl  's  words;  they  had  an  important  bearing,  he 


314  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

said,  which  his  brother  had  not  had  time  to  bring  out  ade- 
quately before  the  congregation.  At  first  he  leaned  carelessly 
on  the  pulpit  cushion,  laughing  cunningly,  and  spoke  in  a 
low,  deep,  hoarse,  indistinct,  and  confidential  tone ;  but  soon  he 
struck  a  higher  key,  drawling  his  sentences  like  a  street  sales- 
man, occasionally  breaking  out  into  a  yell  with  all  the  strength 
of  extraordinarily  powerful  lungs,  at  the  same  time  taking  a 
striking  attitude  and  gesturing  in  an  extraordinary  manner . 
This  would  create  a  frightful  excitement  in  the  people,  and  be 
responded  to  with  the  loudest  and  most  terrific  shouts.  I  can 
compare  them  to  nothing  else  human  I  ever  heard.  Some- 
times he  would  turn  from  the  audience  and  assume  a  personal 
opponent  to  be  standing  by  his  side  in  the  pulpit.  Then, 
after  battling  for  a  few  minutes  in  an  awful  and  majestic  man- 
ner with  this  man  of  Belial,  whom  he  addressed  constantly  as 
"sir!"  he  would  turn  again  to  the  admiring  congregation, 
and  in  a  familiar,  gratulatory,  and  conversational  tone  explain 
the  difficulty  into  which  he  had  got  him,  and  then  again  sud- 
denly turn  back  upon  him,  and  in  a  boxing  attitude  give  an- 
other knock-down  reply  to  his  heretical  propositions. 

His  language  was  in  a  great  part  unintelligible  to  me,  but 
the  congregation  seemed  to  enjoy  it  highly,  and  encouraged 
and  assisted  him  in  his  combat  with  "  Sir  "  Knight  of  his 
imagination  most  tumultuously  ;  and  I  soon  found  that  this 
poor  gentleman,  over  whom  he  rode  his  high  horse  so  fiercely, 
was  one  of  those  "  who  take  unto  themselves  the  name  of 
Baptist,"  and  that  the  name  of  his  own  charger  was  "  Perse- 
verance-of-the-Saints." 

The  only  intelligible  argument  that  I  could  discover,  was 
presented  under  the  following  circumstances.  Having  made 
his  supposed  adversary  assert  that  "  if  a  man  would  only  just 
believe,  and  let  him  bury  him  under  de  water,  he  would  be 
saved.,"— ^he  caught  up  the  big  pulpit  Bible,  and  using  if 


LOUISIANA.  315 

catapult,  pretended  to  hurl  from  it  the  reply — "  Except  ye 
persevere  and  fight  de  good  fight  unto  de  end,  ye  shall  be 
damned  !"  "  That's  it,  that's  it !"  shouted  the  delighted  au- 
dience. "  Yes !  you  shall  be  damned !  Ah  !  you've  got  it 
now,  have  ye !  Pooh !— VVha's  de  use  o'  his  tellin'  us  dat 
ar  ?"  he  continued,  turning  to  the  congregation  with  a  laugh  ; 
"  wha's  de  use  on't,  when  we  know  dat  a  month  arter  he's 
buried  'em  under  de  water — whar  do  we  find  'em  ?  Ha  ?  ah 
ha  !  Whar  ?  In  de  grog-shop  !  (ha  !  ha !  ha !  ha  !)  Yes 
we  do,  don't  we  ?  (Yes  !  yes  !)  In  de  rum-hole  !  (Ha  !  ha  ! 
ha  !  Yes !  yes !  oh  Lord  !)  and  we  know  de  spirit  of  rum  and 
de  Spirit  of  God  hasn't  got  no  'Unities.  (Yah !  ha !  ha  !  yes ! 
yes  !  dat's  it !  dat's  it !  oh,  my  Jesus !  Oh !  oh !  glory ! 
glory !)  Sut'nly,  sah !  You  may  launch  out  upon  de  ocean  a 
drop  of  oil  way  up  to  Virginny,  and  we'll  launch  annudder 
one  heah  to  Lusiana,  and  when  dey  meets — no  matter  how 
far  dey  been  gone — dey '11  unite  !  Why,  sah  ?  Because  dey's 
got  de  'finities,  sah !  But  de  spirit  of  rum  haint  got  nary 
sort  o'  'finity  with  de  Spirit,"  etc. 

Three  of  the  congregation  threw  themselves  into  hysterics 
during  this  harangue,  though  none  were  so  violent  as  that  of 
the  woman  in  the  gallery.  The  man  I  had  noticed  first  from 
his  strange  convulsive  motions,  was  shaking  as  if  in  a  violent 
ague,  and  frequently  snatched  the  sleeve  of  his  coat  in  his 
teeth  as  if  he  would  rend  it.  The  speaker  at  length  returned 
to  the  hymn,  repeated  the  number  and  page  and  the  first  two 
lines.  These  were  sung,  and  he  repeated  the  next,  and  so  on, 
as  in  the  Scotch  Presbyterian  service.  The  congregation 
sang;  I  think  every  one  joined,  even  the  children,  and  the 
collective  sound  was  wonderful.  The  voices  of  one  or  two 
women  rose  above  the  rest,  and  one  of  these  soon  began  to 
introduce  variations,  which  consisted  mainly  of  shouts  of  Oh  ! 
oh!  at  a  piercing  height.  Many  of  the  singers  kept  time 


316  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

i 

with  their  feet,  balancing  themselves  on  each  alternately,  and 
swinging  their  bodies  accordingly.  The  reading  of  the  lines 
would  be  accompanied  also  by  shouts,  as  during  the  previous 
discourse. 

When  the  preacher  had  concluded  reading  the  last  two 
lines,  as  the  singing  again  proceeded,  he  raised  his  own  voice 
above  all,  turned  around,  clapped  his  hands,  and  commenced 
to  dance,  and  laughed  aloud — first  with  his  back,  and  then  with 
his  face  to  the  audience. 

The  singing  ceased,  but  he  continued  his  movements,  leap- 
ing, with  increasing  agility,  from  one  side  of  the  pulpit  to  the 
other.  The  people  below  laughed  and  shouted,  and  the  two 
other  preachers  who  were  shut  in  the  pulpit  with  the  dancer, 
tried  hard  to  keep  out  of  his  way,  and  threw  forward  their 
arms  or  shoulders,  to  fend  off  his  powerful  buffets  as  he  surged 
about  between  them.  Swinging  out  his  arms  at  random,  with 
a  blow  of  his  fist  he  knocked  the  great  Bible  spinning  off  the 
desk,  to  the  great  danger  of  the  children  below  ;  then  threw 
himself  back,  jamming  the  old  man,  who  was  trying  to  restrain 
him,  against  the  wall. 

At  the  next  heave,  he  pitched  headforemost  into  the  young 
preacher,  driving  him  through  the  door  and  falling  with  him 
half  down  the  stairs,  and  after  bouncing  about  a  few  moments, 
jerking  his  arms  arid  legs  violently,  like  a  supple  jack,  in 
every  direction,  and  all  the  time  driving  his  breath  with  all 
the  noise  possible  between  his  set  teeth,  and  trying  to  foam  at 
the  mouth  and  act  an  epileptic  fit,  there  he  lay  as  if  dead,  the 
young  preacher,  with  the  same  sad  smile,  and  something  of 
shame  on  his  face,  sitting  on  the  stair  holding  his  head  on  his 
shoulder,  and  grasping  one  of  his  hands,  while  his  feet  were 
extended  up  into  the  pulpit. 

The  third  man  in  the  pulpit,  a  short,  aged  negro,  with  a 
smiling  face,  and  a  pleasing  manner,  took  the  Bible,  which 


LOUISIANA.  317 

was  handed  up  to  him  by  one  of  the  congregation,  laid  it  upon 
the  desk,  and,  leaning  over  it,  told  the  people,  in  a  gentle, 
conversational  tone,  that  the  "  love  feast "  would  he  held  at 
four  o'clock ;  gave  some  instructions  about  the  tickets  of  ad- 
mission, and  severely  reproved  those,  who  were  in  the  habit  of 
coming  late,  and  insisted  upon  being  let  in  after  the  doors 
were  locked.  He  then  announced  that  the  doxology  would  be 
sung,  which  accordingly  followed,  another  woman  going  into 
hysterics  at  the  close.  The  prostrate  man  rose,  and  released 
the  young  preacher,  who  pronounced  the  Apostles'  blessing, 
and  the  congregation  slowly  passed  out,  chatting  and  saluting 
one  another  politely  as  they  went,  and  bearing  not  the  slight- 
est mark  of  the  previous  excitement. 

I  came  to  Mr.  K.'s  plantation  by  a  steamboat,  late  at 
night.  As  the  boat  approached  the  shore,  near  his  house, 
her  big  bell  having  been  rung  some  ten  minutes  previously, 
a  negro  came  out  with  a  lantern  to  meet  her.  The  boat's 
bow  was  run  boldly  against  the  bank ;  I  leaped  ashore,  the 
clerk  threw  out  a  newspaper  and  a  package,  saying  to  the 
negro,  "  That's  for  your  master,  and  that's  for  so-and-so,  tell 
your  master,  and  ask  him  to  give  it  to  him."  The  boat 
bounded  off  at  once,  by  her  own  elasticity,  the  starboard 
wheel  was  backed  for  a  turn  or  two,  and  the  next  minute  the 
great  edifice  was  driving  up  the  stream  again — not  a  rope 
having  been  lifted,  nor  any  other  movement  having  been 
made  on  board,  except  by  the  pilot  and  engineer. 

"  Do  you  belong  to  Mr.  K.  ?"  I  asked  the  negro.  "  Yes, 
sir ;  is  you  going  to  our  house,  master  ?"  "  Yes."  "  I'll 
show  you  the  way,  then,  sir;"  and  he  conducted  me  in, 
leaving  the  parcels  the  clerk  had  thrown  out,  where  they  had 
fallen,  on  the  bank. 

A  negro  woman  prepared  a  bed  for  me,  waited  at  the  door 
till  I  had  put  out  my  light,  and  then  returned  to  tuck  in  the 


318  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

musquito-bar  tightly  about  the  bed.  This  was  merely  from 
custom,  as  there  were  no  musquitoes  at  that  season.  In  the 
morning  the  same  woman  awakened  me,  opened  the  curtains, 
and  asked  me  to  take  the  money  which  she  had  found  in  the 
pockets  of  my  clothing,  while  she  took  it  out  to  be  brushed. 

Mr.  R.  is  a  Southerner  by  birth,  but  was  educated  at  the 
North,  where,  also,  and  in  foreign  countries,  he  has  spent  a 
large  part  of  his  life.  He  is  a  man  of  more  than  usual  pre- 
cision of  mind,  energetic  and  humane ;  and  while  his  negroes 
seemed  to  be  better  disciplined  than  any  others  I  had  seen, 
they  evidently  regarded  him  with  affection,  respect,  and 
pride. 

He  had  been  ill  for  some  weeks  previous  to  my  visit,  and 
when  he  walked  out  with  me,  on  the  second  day,  it  was  the 
first  time  since  the  commencement  of  his  illness  that  his 
field-hands  had  seen  him. 

The  first  negroes  we  met  were  half  a  dozen  women,  who 
were  going  up  to  the  nursery  to  suckle  their  children — the 
overseer's  bell  having  been  just  rung  (at  eleven  o'clock),  to 
call  them  in  from  work  for  that  purpose.  Mr.  R.  said  that 
he  allowed  them  two  hours  to  be  with  their  children  while 
nursing  at  noon,  and  to  leave  work  an  hour  earlier  at  night 
than  the  other  field-hands.  The  women  all  stopped  as  we 
met  them,  and  asked,  with  much  animation : 

"  Oh,  master  !  how  is  ou  ?" 

"Well,  I'm  getting  up.     How  are  you,  girls?" 

"  Oh,  we's  well,  sir." 

"  The  children  all  well  ?" 

"  Yes,  master,  all  but  Sukey's,  sir." 

"  Sukey's  ?     What,  isn't  that  well  yet  ?" 

"  No,  master." 

"But  it's  getting  well,  is  it  not?" 

"  Yes,  master." 


LOUISIANA.  319 

Soon  after  we  met  a  boy,  driving  a  cart.  He  pulled  up  as 
he  came  against  us,  and,  taking  off  his  hat,  aske.d,  "  How  is 
'ou,  master?" 

"  I'm  getting  well,  you  see.  If  I  don't  get  about,  and 
look  after  you,  I'm  afraid  we  shan't  have  much  of  a  crop.  I 
don't  know  what  you  niggers  will  do  for  Christmas  money." 

"  Ha  ! — look  heah,  massa  ! — you  jus'  go  right  straight  on 
de  ways  you's  goin' ;  see  suthin'  make  you  laugh,  ha !  ha ! 
(meaning  the  work  that  had  been  done  while  he  was  ill,  and 
the  good  promise  of  a  crop) . 

The  plantation  contained  about  nine  hundred  acres  of 
tillage  land,  and  a  large  tract  of  "  swamp,"  or  woodland,  was 
attached  to  it.  The  tillage  land  was  inclosed  all  in  one  field 
by  a  strong  cypress  post  and  rail  fence,  and  was  drained  by 
two  canals,  five  feet  deep,  running  about  twenty  feet  apart, 
and  parallel — the  earth  from  both  being  thrown  together,  so 
as  to  make  a  high,  dry  road  between  them,  straight  through 
the  middle  of  the  plantation. 

Fronting  upon  the  river,  and  but  six  or  eight  rods  from 
the  public  road,  which  everywhere  runs  close  along  the  shore 
inside  the  levee,  was  the  mansion  of  the  proprietor :  an  old 
Creole  house,  the  lower  story  of  brick  and  the  second  of 
wood,  with  a  broad  gallery,  shaded  by  the  extended  roof, 
running  all  around  it;  the  roof  steep,  and  shedding  water  on 
four  sides,  with  ornaments  of  turned  wood  where  lines  met, 
and  broken  by  several  small  dormer  windows.  The  gallery- 
was  supported  by  round  brick  columns,  and  arches.  The 
parlours,  library,  and  sleeping  rooms  of  the  white  family  were 
all  on  the  second  floor.  Between  the  house  and  the  street 
was  a  yard,  planted  formally  with  orange-trees  and  other 
evergreens.  A  little  on  one  side  of  the  house  stood  a  large 
two-story,  square  dove-cot,  which  is  a  universal  appendage  of 
a  sugar-planter's  house.  In  the  rear  of  the  house  was  an- 


321)  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

other  large  yard,  in  which,  irregularly  placed,  were  houses  for 
the  family  servants,  a  kitchen,  stable,  carriage-house,  smoke- 
house, etc.  Behind  this  rear-yard  there  was  a  vegetable 
garden,  of  an  acre  or  more,  in  the  charge  of  a  negro  gar- 
dener ;  a  line  of  fig-trees  were  planted  along  the  fence,  but 
all  the  ground  inclosed  was  intended  to  be  cropped  with 
vegetables  for  the  family,  and  for  the  supply  of  "the  people." 
I  was  pleased  to  notice,  however,  that  the  negro-gardener 
had,  of  his  own  accord,  planted  some  violets  and  other 
flowering  plants.  From  a  corner  of  the  court  a  road  ran  to 
the  sugar-works  and  the  negro  settlement,  which  were  five  or 
six  hundred  yards  from  the  house. 

The  negro  houses  were  exactly  like  those  I  have  described 
on  the  Georgia  Eice  Plantation,  except  that  they  were  pro- 
vided with  broad  galleries  in  front.  They  were  as  neat  and 
well-made  externally  as  the  cottages  usually  provided  by  large 
•^manufacturing  companies  in  New  England,  to  b#>  rented  to 
Aheir  workmen.  The  clothing  "furnished  the  negroes,  and  the 
/  rations  of  bacon  and  meal,  were  the  same  as  on  other  good 
^.plantations.  During  the  grinding  season  extra  rations  of 
flour  were  served,  and  hot  coffee  was  kept  constantly  in  the 
sugar-house,  and  the  hands  on  duty  were  allowed  to  drink  it 
almost  ad  libitum.  They  were  also  allowed  to  drink  freely 
of  the  hot  strop,  of  whieh  they  were  extremely  fond.  A 
generous  allowance  of  sirop,  or  molasses,  was  also  given  out 
to  them,  with  their  other  rations,  every  week  during  the 
winter  and  early  summer.  In  extremely  hot  weather  it  was 
thought  to  be  unfavourable  to  health,  and  was  discontinued. 
Rations  of  tobacco  were  also  served.  At  Christmas,  a  sum  of 
money,  equal  to  one  dollar  for  each  hogshead  of  sugar  made 
on  the  plantation,  was  divided  among  the  negroes.  The  last 
year  this  had  amounted  to  over  two  dollars  a  head.  It  was 
usually  given  to  the  heads  of  families.  If  any  had  been  par- 


LOUISIANA.  321 

ticularly  careless  or  lazy,  it  was  remembered  at  this  Christmas 
dole.  Of  course,  the  effect  of  this  arrangement,  small  as  was 
the  amount  received  by  each  person,  was  to  give  the  labourers 
a  direct  interest  in  the  economical  direction  of  their  labour : 
the  advantage  of  it  was  said  to  be  evident. 

Mr.  R.  had  purchased  the  plantation  but  three  years  before, 
and  had  afterwards  somewhat  increased  its  area  by  buying 
out  several  poor  people,  who  had  owned  small  farms  adjoin- 
ing. He  had  greatly  extended  and  improved  the  drainage, 
and  had  nearly  doubled  the  force  of  negroes  employed  upon 
it,  adding  to  the  number  that  he  purchased  with  the  land, 
nearly  as  many  more  whom  he  had  inherited,  and  whom  he 
transferred  to  it  from  an  old  cotton  plantation  that  he  had 
formerly  lived  upon. 

He  had  considerably  more  than  doubled  the  stock  of  mules 
and  oxen ;  had  built  entirely  new  cabins  for  all  the  negroes, 
and  new  sugar-works  and  stables.  His  whole  capital,  he  said, 
when  he  first  bought  the  plantation,  would  not  have  paid  half 
the  price  of  it  and  of  the  cost  of  stocking  it  as  he  had  done. 
Most  men  when  they  buy  a  plantation,  he  informed  mv,  go 
very  heavily  in  debt ;  frequently  the  purchase  is  made  three 
quarters  on  credit. 

"  Buying  a  plantation,"  were  his  words,  "whether  a  sugar 
or  cotton  plantation,  in  this  country,  is  usually  essentially  a 
gambling  operation.  The  capital  invested  in  a  sugar  planta- 
tion of  the  size  of  mine  ought  not  to  be  less  than  $  150,000. 
The  purchaser  pays  down  what  he  can,  and  usually  gives 
security  for  the  payment  of  the  balance  in  six  annual  instal- 
ments, with  interest  (10  per  cent,  per  annum)  from  the  date 
of  the  purchase.  Success  in  sugar,  as  well  as  cotton  planting, 
is  dependent  on  so  many  circumstances,  that  it  is  as  much 
trusting  to  luck  as  betting  on  a  throw  of  dice.  If  his  first 
crop  proves  a  bad  one,  he  must  borrow  money  of  the  Jews  in 

VOL.  i.  ^ 


322  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

New  Orleans  to  pay  his  first  note ;  they  will  sell  him  this  on 
the  best  terms  they  can — often  at  not  less  than  25  per  cent, 
per  annum.  If  three  or  four  bad  crops  fojfcw  one  another,  he 
is  ruined.  But  this  is  seldom  the  case,  and  he  lives  on,  one 
year  gaining  a  little  on  his  debts,  but  almost  as  often  enlarg- 
ing them.  Three  or  four  years  ago  there  was  hardly  a 
planter  in  Louisiana  or  Mississippi  who  was  not  in  very  em- 
barrassed circumstances,  nearly  every  one  having  his  crops 
pledged  to  his  creditors  long  before  they  were  secured.  The 
good  prices  and  good  crops  of  the  last  few  years  have  set  them 
all  on  their  legs  again ;  and  this  year  all  the  jewellers'  shops, 
and  stores  of  rich  furniture  and  dry  goods,  in  New  Orleans, 
were  cleared  out  by  the  middle  of  the  season,  and  everybody 
feels  strong  and  cheerful.  I  have  myself  been  particularly 
fortunate ;  I  have  made  three  good  crops  in  succession.  Last 
year  I  made  six  hundred  and  fifty  hogsheads  of  sugar,  and 
twelve  hundred  barrels  of  molasses.  The  molasses  alone 
brought  me  a  sum  sufficient  to  pay  all  my  plantation 
expenses ;  and  the  sugar  yields  me  a  clear  profit  of  twenty- 
nve  per  cent,  on  my  whole  investment.  If  I  make  another 
crop  this  year  as  good  as  that,  I  shall  be  able  to  discount  my 
outstanding  notes,  and  shall  be  clear  of  debt  at  the  end  of 
four  years,  instead  of  six,  which  was  all  I  had  hoped  for." 

On  another  plantation,  which  I  have  since  visited,  which 
had  a  slave  population  of  over  two  hundred — counted  as  one 
hundred  field-hands — the  sugar  works  cost  $40,000,  and 
seven  hundred  barrels  of  sugar  were  made  last  year.  On  this 
plantation  there  is  a  steam-pump,  which  drains  the  rear  of  the 
plantation  over  a  levee,  when  the  back-water  from  the  swamp 
would  otherwise  prevent  perfect  drainage. 

Mr.  K.  modestly  credited  his  extraordinary  success  to 
"luck;"'  but  I  was  satisfied,  upon  examining  his  improve- 
ments, and  considering  the  reasons,  which  he  readily  gave  for 


LOUISIANA.  323 

every  operation  which  he  showed,  or  described  to  me,  that 
intelligence,  study,  and  enterprise  had  seldom  hetter  claims  to 
reward.  Adjoining  his  plantation  there  was  another  of  nearly 
twice  the  size,  on  which  an  equal  number  of  negroes  and  only 
half  the  number  of  cattle  were  employed ;  and  the  proprietor, 
I  was  told,  had  liad  rather  bad  luck  :  he  had,  in  fact,  made  but 
little  more  than  half  as  much  sugar  as  Mr.  E.  I  inquired  of  the 
latter  if  there  was  any  advantage  in  his  soil  over  that  of  his 
neighbour's.  "  I  think  not,"  he  replied ;  "  my  best  cane  was 
made  on  a  piece  of  land  adjoining  his,  which,  before  I  bought 
it,  was  thought  unfit  for  cultivation.  The  great  advantage  I 
had  over  him  last  year,  mainly  arose  from  my  having  secured 
a  more  complete  drainage  of  all  my  land." 

The  soil  of  the  greater  part  of  the  plantation  was  a  fine, 
dark,  sandy  loam ;  some  of  it,  at  the  greatest  distance  from 
the  river,  was  lighter  in  colour,  and  more  clayey ;  and  in  one 
part,  where  there  was  a  very  slight  depression  of  the  surface 
over  about  fifty  acres,  there  was  a  dark,  stiffish  soil.  It  Avas 
this  to  which  Mr.  B.  alluded  as  having  produced  his  best 
cane.  It  had  been  considered  too  low,  wet,  tenacious,  and 
unfertile  to  be  worthy  of  cultivation  by  the  former  owner,  and 
was  covered  with  bushes  and  weeds  when  he  took  it.  The 
improvement  had  been  effected  entirely  by  draining  and  fall- 
ploughing.  In  fall-ploughing,  as  a  remedy  for  tenacity  of 
soil,  this  gentleman's  experience  had  given  him  great  faith. 
At  various  points,  on  my  tour,  I  found  most  conflicting 
opinions  upon  this  point,  many  (among  them  the  President 
of  a  State  Agricultural  Society)  having  invariably  observed 
pernicious  effects  result  from  it. 

The  sugar-cane  is  a  perennial-rooted  plant,  and  the  stalk 
does  not  attain  its  full  size,  under  favourable  circumstances, 
in  less  growing  time  than  twelve  months ;  and  seed  does  not 
usually  form  upon  it  until  the  thirteenth  or  fourteenth  month. 

Y  2 


324  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

This  function  (termed  arrowing/)  it  only  performs  in  a  very 
hot  and  steadily  hot  climate,  somewhat  rarely  even  in  the 
West  Indies.  The  plant  is,  at  all  stages,  extremely  suscep- 
tible to  cold,  a  moderate  frost  not  only  suspending  its  growth, 
but  disorganizing  it  so  that  the  chemical  qualities  of  its  sap 
are  changed,  and  it  is  rendered  valueless  for  sugar  making. 

As  frosts  of  considerable  severity  are  common  in  all  parts  of 
Louisiana,  during  three  months  of  the  year,  of  course  the 
sugar-cane  is  there  never  permitted  to  attain  its  full  growth. 
To  so  much  greater  perfection  does  it  arrive  in  the  West 
Indies,  that  the  cane  produced  on  one  acre  will  yield  from 
3,000  to  6,000  Ibs.  of  sugar,  while  in  Louisiana  1,000  is  con- 
sidered the  average  obtained.  "  I  could  make  sugar  in  the 
climate  of  Cuba,"  said  a  Louisiana  planter  to  me,  "  for  half 
the  price  that,  under  the  most  favourable  circumstances,  it 
must  cost  here."  In  addition  to  the  natural  uncongeniality 
of  the  climate,  the  ground  on  which  it  grows  in  Louisiana, 
being  lower  than  the  surface  of  the  river,  is  much  of  the  time 
made  cold  by  the  infiltration  of  moisture.  It  is,  therefore, 
only  by  reason  of  the  extreme  fertility  of  this  alluvial  deposit, 
assisted  by  a  careful  method  of  cultivation,  that  the  cane  is 
forced  to  a  state  of  maturity  which  enables  it  to  yield  an 
amount  of  sugar  which,  with  the  assistance  of  a  governmental 
protection  against  foreign  competition,  will  be  remunerative 
to  the  planter. 

I  must  confess  that  there  seems  to  me  room  for  grave 
doubt  if  the  capital,  labour,  and  especially  the  human  life, 
which  have  been  and  which  continue  to  be  spent  in  converting 
the  swamps  of  Louisiana  into  sugar  plantations,  and  in 
defending  them  against  tho  annual  assaults  of  the  river,  and 
the  fever  and  the  cholera,  could  not  have  been  better  em- 
ployed somewhere  else.  It  is  claimed  aa  a  great  advantage  of 
Slavery,  as  woll  as  of  Protection,  that  what  has  been  done  for 


LOUISIANA.  -J25 

this  purpose  never  would  have  been  done  without  it.  If  it  would 
not,  the  obvious  reason  is,  that  the  wages,  or  prospect  of  profit 
would  not  have  been  sufficient  to  induce  free  men  to  undergo 
the  inconveniences  and  the  danger  incident  to  the  enterprise. 
There  is  now  great  wealth  in  Louisiana;  but  I  question  if 
greater  wealth  would  not  have  been  obtained  by  the  same  ex- 
penditure of  human  labour,  and  happiness,  and  life,  in  very 
many  other  directions. 

Planting  commences  immediately  after  the  sugar-manu- 
facturing season  is'  concluded — usually  in  January.  New  or 
fallow  land  is  prepared  by  ploughing  the  whole  surface :  on  this 
plantation  the  plough  used  was  made  in  Kentucky,  and  was  of 
a  very  good  model,  ploughing  seven  to  nine  inches  deep,  with  a 
single  pair  of  mules.  The  ground  being  then  harrowed,  drills 
are  opened  with  a  double  mould-board  plough,  seven  feet  apart. 
Cuttings  of  cane  for  seed  are  to  be  planted  in  them.  These  are 
reserved  from  the  crop  in  the  autumn,  when  some  of  the  best 
cane  on  the  plantation  is  selected  for  this  purpose,  while  still 
standing.*  This  is  cut  off  at  the  roots,  and  laid  up  in  heaps 
or  stacks,  in  such  a  manner  that  the  leaves  and  tops  protect 
the  stalks  from  frost.  The  heaps  are  called  mattresses ;  they 
are  two  or  three  feet  high,  and  as  many  yards  across.  At  the 
planting  season  they  are  opened,  and  the  cane  comes  out  moist 
and  green,  and  sweet,  with  the  buds  or  eyes,  which  protrude 
at  the  joints,  swelling.  The  immature  top  parts  of  the  stalk 
are  cut  off,  and  they  are  loaded  into  carts,  and  carried  to  the 
ground  prepared  for  planting.  The  carts  used  are  large,  with 
high  side-boards,  and  are  drawn  by  three  mules — one  large 
one  being  in  the  shafts,  and  two  lighter  ones  abreast,  before 

*  It  is  only  on  the  best  plantations  that  the  seed-cane  is  selected  with  this  cave. 

On  another  plantation  that  I  visited  during  the  planting  season  I  noticed  that  the 

l»-:-t  i>:ut  of  the  stalk  had  been  cut  off  for  grinding,  and  only  the  less  valuable  part 

•  iv, -.1  for  seed  ;  and  this,  I  apprehend,  is  the  general  practice.     The  best  cuttings 

I  •  "bably  produce  the  most  vigorous  plants. 


326  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

her.  The  drivers  are  boys,  who  use  the  whip  a  great  deal, 
and  drive  rapidly. 

In  the  field  I  found  the  labourers  working  in  three  divisions 
— the  first,  consisting  of  light  hands,  brought  the  cane  by 
arms-full  from  the  cart,  and  laid  it  by  the  side  of  the  fur- 
rows ;  the  second  planted  it,  and  the  third  covered  it.  Plant- 
ing is  done  by  laying  the  cuttings  at  the  bottom  of  the  furrow, 
in  such  a  way  that  there  shall  be  three  always  together,  with 
the  eyes  of  each  a  little  removed  from  those  of  the  others — 
that  is,  all  "  breaking  joints."  They  are  thinly  covered 
with  earth,  drawn  over  them  with  hoes.  The  other  tools 
were  so  well  selected  on  this  plantation,  that  I  expressed 
surprise  at  the  clumsiness  of  the  hoes,  particularly  as  the 
soil  was  light,  and  entirely  free  from  stones.  "  Such  hoes 
as  you  use  at  the  North  would  not  last  a  negro  a  day,"  said 
the  planter. 

Cane  will  grow  for  several  years  from  the  roots  of  the  old 
plants,  and,  when  it  is  allowed  to  do  so,  a  very  considerable 
part  of  the  expense  is  avoided ;  but  the  vigour  of  the  plant  is 
less  when  growing  from  this  source  than  when  starting  from 
cuttings,  and  the  crop,  when  thus  obtained,  is  annually  less  and 
less  productive,  until,  after  a  number  of  years,  depending  upon 
the  rigour  of  the  seasons,  fresh  shoots  cease  to  spring  from  the 
stubble.  This  sprouting  of  cane  from  the  stools  of  the  last 
crop  is  termed  "ratooning."  In  the  West  India  plantations 
the  cane  is  frequently  allowed  to  ratoon  for  eight  successive 
crops.  In  Louisiana  it  is  usual  to  plant  once  in  three  years, 
trusting  to  the  ratooning  for  two  crops  only,  and  this  was  the 
practice  on  Mr.  R.'s  plantation.  The  cost  of  sugar  growing 
would  be  very  greatly  increased  if  the  crop  needed  planting 
every  year ;  for  all  the  cane  grown  upon  an  acre  will  not  furnish 
seed  for  more  than  four  acres — consequently  one-twelfth  of 
the  whole  of  each  crop  has  to  be  reserved  for  the  planting  of 


LOUISIANA.  327 

the  following  crop,  even  when  two-thirds  of  this  is  to  be  of 
ratoon  cane. 

Planting  is  finished  in  a  favourable  season — early  in  March. 
Tillage  is  commenced  immediately  afterwards,  by  ploughing 
from  the  rows  of  young  cane,  and  subsequently  continued  very 
much  after  the  usual  plans  of  tillage  for  potatoes,  when  planted 
in  drills,  with  us.  By  or  before  the  first  of  July,  the  crop  is  all 
well  earthed  up,  the  rows  of  cane  growing  from  the  crest  of  a 
rounded  bed,  seven  feet  wide,  with  deep  water-furrows  be- 
tween each.  The  cane  is  at  this  time  five  or  six  feet  high  ; 
and  that  growing  from  each  bed  forms  arches  with  that  of  the 
next,  so  as  to  completely  shade  the  ground.  The  furrows  be- 
tween the  beds  are  carefully  cleaned  out ;  so  that  in  the  most 
drenching  torrents  of  rain,  the  water  is  rapidly  carried  off'  into 
the  drains,  and  thence  to  the  swamp ;  and  the  crop  then  re- 
quires no  further  labour  upon  it  until- frost  is  apprehended,  or 
the  season  for  grinding  arrives. 

The  nearly  three  months'  interval,  commencing  at  the 
intensest  heat  of  summer,  corresponds  in  the  allotment  of 
labour  to  the  period  of  winter  in  Northern  agriculture, 
because  the  winter  itself,  on  the  sugar-plantations,  is  the. 
planting-season.  The  negroes  are  employed  in  cutting  and 
carting  wood  for  boiling  the  cane-juice,  in  making  necessary 
repairs  or  additions  to  the  sugar-house,  and  otherwise  pre- 
paring for  the  grinding-season. 

The  grinding-season  is  the  harvest  of  the  sugar-planter ;  it 
commences  in  October,  and  continues  for  two  or  three  months, 
during  which  time,  the  greatest  possible  activity  and  the 
Utmost  labour  of  which  the  hands  are  capable,  are  required  to 
secure  the  product  of  the  previous  labour  of  the  year.  Mr.  E. 
assured  me  that  during  the  last  grinding-season  nearly  every 
man,  woman,  and  child  on  his  plantation,  including  the  over- 
seer and  himself,  were  on  duty  fully  eighteen  hours  a  day. 


828  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

From  the  moment  grinding  first  commences,  until  the  end  of 
the  season,  it  is  never  discontinued  :  the  fires  under  the  boiler 
never  go  out,  and  the  negroes  only  rest  for  six  hours  in  the 
twenty-four,  by  relays — three-quarters  of  them  being  con- 
stantly at  work. 

Notwithstanding  the  severity  of  the  labour  required  of 
them  at  this  time,  Mr.  R.  said  that  his  negroes  were  as  glad 
as  he  was  himself  to  have  the  time  for  grinding  arrive,  and  they 
worked  with  greater  cheerfulness  than  at  any  other  season. 
How  can  those  persons  who  are  always  so  ready  to  maintain 
that  the  slaves  work  less  than  free  labourers  in  free  countries, 
and  that  for  that  reason  they  are  to  be  envied  by  them, 
account  for  this  ?  That  at  Mr.  E.'s  plantation  it  was  the  case 
that  the  slaves  enjoyed  most  that  season  of  the  year  when 
the  hardest  labour  was  required  of  them,  I  have,  in  addition 
to  Mr.  R.'s  own  evidence,  good  reason  to  believe,  which  I 
shall  presently  report.  And  the  reason  of  it  evidently  is,  that 
they  are  then  better  paid  ;  they  have  better  and  more  varied 
food  and  stimulants  than  usual,  but  especially  they  have  a 
degree  of  freedom,  and  of  social  pleasure,  and  a  variety  of 
occupation  which  brings  a  recreation  of  the  mind,  and  to  a  cer- 
tain degree  gives  them  strength  for,  and  pleasufe  in,  their 
labour.  Men  of  sense  have  discovered  that  when  they  desire 
to  get  extraordinary  exertions  from  their  slaves,  it  is  better  to 
offer  them  rewards  than  to  whip  them ;  to  encourage  them, 
rather  than  to  drive  them. 

If  the  season  has  been  favourable,  so  that  the  cane  is 
strong,  and  well  matured,  it  will  endure  a  smart  early  frost 
without  injury,  particularly  if  the  ground  is  well  drained ; 
but  as  rapidly  as  possible,  after  the  season  has  arrived  a< 
which  frosts  are  to  be  expected,  the  whole  crop  is  cut,  and 
put  in  mattresses,  from  which  it  is  taken  to  the  grinding-mill 
ft  3  ffi«!t  ns  it  can  be  made  to  use  it. 


LOUISIANA.  329 

The  business  of  manufacturing  sugar  is  everywhere  carried 
on  in  connection  with  the  planting  of  the  cane.  The  short- 
ness of  the  season  during  which  the  cane  can  be  used  is  the 
reason  assigned  for  this :  the  proprietors  would  not  be  willing 
to  trust  to  custom-mills  to  manufacture  their  produce  with 
the  necessary  rapidity.  If  cane  should  be  cultivated  in  con- 
nection with  other  crops — that  is,  on  small  farms,  instead  of 
great  "  sugar  only "  plantations — neighbourhood  custom- 
mills  would  probably  be  employed.  The  profit  of  a  sugar- 
plantation  is  now  large,  much  in  proportion  to  its  size  (if  it 
be  proportionately  stocked)  ;  because  only  a  very  large 
supply  of  cane  will  warrant  the  proprietor  in  providing  the 
most  economical  manufacturing  apparatus.  In  1849  there 
were  1,474  sugar  estates  in  Louisiana,  producing  236,547 
hhds.  of  sugar ;  but  it  is  thought  that  half  of  this  quantity 
was  produced  on  less  than  200  estates— that  is,  that  one- 
eighth  of  the  plantations  produced  one-half  the  sugar.  The 
sugar-works  on  some  of  the  large  estates  cost  over  $100,000, 
and  many  of  them  manufacture  over  1,000,000  Ibs.  per 
annum.  The  profits  of  these,  under  our  present  tariff,  in  a 
favourable  season,  are  immense. 

The  apparatus  used  upon  the  better  class  of  plantations  is 
very  admirable,  and  improvements  are  yearly  being  made, 
which  indicate  high  scientific,  acquirements,  and  much  me- 
chanical ingenuity  on  the  part  of  the  inventors.  The  whole 
process  of  sugar  manufacturing,  although  chemical  analysis 
proves  that  a  large  amount  of  saccharine  is  still  wasted,  has 
been  within  a  few  years  greatly  improved,  principally  by 
reason  of  the  experiments  and  discoveries  of  the  French 
chemists,  whose  labours  have  been  directed  by  the  purpose  to 
lessen  the  cost  of  beet-sugar.  Apparatus  for  various  processes 
in  the  manufacture,  which  they  have  invented  or  recom- 
mended, has  been  improved,  and  brought  into  practical 


330    •  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

operation  on  a  large  scale  on  some  of  the  Louisiana  planta- 
tions, the  owners  of  which  are  among  the  most  intelligent, 
enterprising,  and  wealthy  men  of  business  in  the  United 
States.  Forty-three  plantations  in  the  State  are  now  fur- 
nished with  apparatus  constructed  in  accordance  with  the  best 
scientific  knowledge  on  the  subject ;  and  914  are  driven  by 
steam-engines — leaving  but  560  to  bo  worked  by  horse- 
power. Mr.  K.'s  sugar-house,  for  making  brown  sugar,  was 
furnished  with  the  best  kind  of  apparatus,  at  a  cost  of 
$20,000.  Preparations  were  making  for  the  addition  of 
works  for  the  manufacture  of  white  loaf  sugar,  which  would 
cost  $20,000  more.  I  have  visited  one  plantation  on  which 
the  sugar- works  are  said  to  have  cost  over  $100,000. 

At  one  corner  of  Mr.  R.'s  plantation,  there  was  a  hamlet 
consisting  of  about  a  dozen  small  houses  or  huts,  built  of 
wood  or  clay,  in  the  old  French  peasant  style.  The  residents 
owned  small  farms,  on  which  they  raised  a  little  corn  and 
rice  ;  but  Mr.  R.  described  them  as  lazy  vagabonds,  doing 
but  little  work,  and  spending  much  time  in  shooting,  fishing, 
and  play.  He  wanted  much  to  buy  all  their  land,  and  get 
them  to  move  away.  He  had  already  bought  out  some  of 
them,  and  had  made  arrangements  by  which  he  hoped  soon 
to  get  hold  of  the  land  of  some  of  the  rest.  He  was  willing 
to  pay  two  or  three  times  as  much  as  the  property  was  actually 
worth,  to  get  them  to  move  off.  As  fast  as  he  got  possession, 
he  destroyed  their  houses  and  gardens,  removed  their  fences 
and  trees,  and  brought  ail  their  land  into  his  cane-plantation. 

Some  of  them  were  mechanics.  One  was  a  very  good 
mason,  and  he  employed  him  in  building  his  sugar-works  and 
refinery ;  but  he  would  be  glad  to  get  rid  of  them  all,  and 
depend  entirely  on  slave  mechanics — of  these  he  had  several 
already,  and  he  could  buy  more  when  he  needed  them. 


LOUISIANA.  331 


Why  did  he  so  dislike  to  have  these  poor  people 
near  him,  I  asked  ?  Because,  he  straightway  answered,  they 
demoralized  his  negroes.  Seeing  them  living  in  apparent 
comfort,  without  much  property  and  without  steady  labour, 
the  slaves  could  not  help  thinking  that  it  was  unnecessary  for 
men  to  work  so  hard  as  they  themselves  were  obliged  to,  and 
that  if  they  were  free  they  would  not  work.  Besides,  the 
intercourse  of  these  people  with  the  negroes  was  not  favourable 
to  good  discipline.  They  would  get  the  negroes  to  do  them 
little  services,  and  would  pay  with  luxuries  which  he  did  not 
wish  his  slaves  to  have.  It  was  better  that  they  never  saw 
anybody  off  their  own  plantation;  they  should,  if  possible, 
have  no  intercourse  with  any  other  white  men  than  their 
owner  or  overseer  ;  especially,  it  was  desirable  that  they 
should  not  see  white  men  who  did  not  command  their  respect, 
and  whom  they  did  not  always  feel  to  be  superior  to  them- 
selves, and  able  to  command  them. 

The  nuisance  of  petty  traders  dealing  with  the  negroes, 
and  encouraging  them  to  pilfer,  which  I  found  everywhere  a 
great  annoyance  to  planters,  seems  to  be  greater  on  the  banks 
of  the  Mississippi  than  elsewhere.  The  traders  generally 
come  on  boats,  which  they  moor  at  night  on  the  shore, 
adjoining  the  negro-quarters,  and  float  away  whenever  they 
have  obtained  any  booty,  with  veiy  small  chance  of  detection. 
One  day,  during  my  visit  at  Mr.  K.'s,  a  neighbour  called  to 
apprise  him  that  one  of  these  trading-boats  was  in  the  vicinity, 
that  he  might  take  precautions  to  prevent  his  negroes  dealing 
with  it.  "The  law,"  he  observed,  with  much  feeling,  "is 
entirely  inadequate  to  protect  us  against  these  rascals;  it 
rather  protects  them  than  us.  They  easily  evade  detection 
in  breaking  it  ;  and  we  can  never  get  them  punished,  except 
we  go  beyond  or  against  the  law  ourselves."  To  show  me 
how  vexatious  the  evil  was,  he  mentioned  that  a  large  brass 


332  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

cock  and  some  pipe  had  been  lately  stolen  from  his  sugar- 
works,  and  that  he  had  ascertained  that  one  of  his  negroes 
had  taken  it  and  sold  it  on  board  one  of  these  boats  for 
seventy-five  cents,  and  had  immediately  spent  the  money, 
chiefly  for  whisky,  on  the  same  boat.  It  had  cost  him  thirty 
dollars  to  replace  it.  Mr.  E.  said  that  he  had  lately  caught 
one  of  his  own  negroes  going  towards  one  of  the  "chicken 
thieves"  (so  the  traders'  boats  are  locally  called)  with  a  piece 
of  machinery,  unscrewed  from  his  sugar-works,  which  had 
cost  him  eighty  dollars,  but  which  would,  very  likely,  have 
been  sold  for  a  drink.  If  the  negro  had  succeeded  in  reaching 
the  boat,  as  he  would,  if  a  watch  had  not  been  kept,  he  could 
never  have  recovered  it.  There  would  have  been  no  witnesses 
to  the  sale ;  the  stolen  goods  would  have  been  hid  on  board 
until  the  boat  reached  New  Orleans ;  or,  if  an  officer  came  to 
search  the  boat,  they  would  have  been  dropped  into  the  river, 
before  he  got  on  board. 

This  neighbour  of  Mr.  E.'s  had  been  educated  in  France. 
Conversing  on  the  inconveniences  of  Slavery,  he  acknow- 
ledged that  it  was  not  only  an  uneconomical  system,  but  a 
morally  wrong  one ;  "  but,"  he  said,  "  it  was  not  instituted 
by  us — we  are  not  responsible  for  it.  It  is  unfortunately 
fixed  upon  us ;  we  could  not  do  away  with  it  if  we  wished  ; 
our  duty  is  only  to  make  the  best  of  a  bad  thing ;  to  lessen 
its  evils  as  much  as  we  can,  so  far  as  we  have  to  do  with  it 
individually." 

Mr.  E.  himself  also  acknowledged  Slavery  to  be  a  very 
great  evil,  morally  and  economically.  It  was  a  curse  upon 
the  South ;  he  had  no  doubt  at  all  about  it :  nothing  would 
be  more  desirable  than  its  removal,  if  it  were  possible  to  be 
accomplished.  But  he  did  not  think  it  could  be  abolished 
without  instituting  greater  evils  than  those  sought  to  be 
remedied.  Its  influence  on  the  character  of  the  whites  was 


LOUISIANA.  333 

what  was  most  deplorable.  He  was  sorry  to  think  that  his 
children  would  have  to  be  subject  to  it.  He  thought  that 
eventually,  if  he  were  able  to  afford  it,  he  should  free  his 
slaves  and  send  them  to  Africa. 

When  I  left  Mr.  K.'s,  I  was  driven  about  twenty  miles  in 
a  buggy,  by  one  of  his  house  servants.  He  was  inclined  to 
be  talkative  and  communicative;  and  as  he  expressed  great 
affection  and  respect  for  his  owner,  I  felt  at  liberty  to  question 
him  on  some  points  upon  which  I  had  always  previously 
avoided  conversing  with  slaves.  He  spoke  rapidly,  garru- 
lously ;  and  it  was  only  necessary  for  me  to  give  a  direction 
to  his  thoughts,  by  my  inquiries.  I  was  careful  to  avoid 
leading  questions,  and  not  to  show  such  an  interest  as  would 
lead  him  to  reply  guardedly.  I  charged  my  memory  as 
much  as  possible  with  his  very  words,  when  this  was  of  con- 
sequence, and  made  the  following  record  of  the  conversation 
within  half  an  hour  after  I  left  him. 

He  first  said  that  he  supposed  that  I  would  see  that  he 
was  not  a  "  Creole  nigger ;"  he  came  from  Virginia.  He 
reckoned  the  Virginia  negroes  were  better  looking  than  those 
who  were  raised  here ;  there  were  no  black  people  anywhere 
in  the  world  who  were  so  "  well  made  "  as  those  who  were 
born  in  Virginia.  He  asked  if  I  lived  in  New  Orleans ;  and 
where  ?  I  told  him  that  I  lived  at  the  North.  He  asked  : 

"  Da's  a  great  many  brack  folks  dah,  massa  ?" 

"  No ;  very  few." 

"  Da's  a  great  many  in  Virginny  ;  more'n  da  is  heah  ?" 

"  But  I  came  from  beyond  Virginia — from  New  York." 

He  had  heard  there  were  a  great  many  black  folk  in  New 
York.  I  said  there  were  a  good  many  in  the  city ;  but  few 
in  the  country.  Did  I  live  in  the  country  ?  What-  people 
did  I  have  for  servants  ?  Thought,  if  I  hired  all  my  labour, 
it  must  be  very  dear.  He  inquired  further  about  negroes 


334  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

there.     I  told  him  they  were  all  free,  and  described  their 
general  condition ;  told  him  what  led  them  to  congregate  in 
/  cities,  and  what  the  effect  was.     He  said  the  negroes,  both 
{       slave  and  free,  who  lived  in  New  Orleans,  were  better  off  than 
\     those  who  lived  in  the  country.     Why  ?     Because  they  make 
\  more  money,  and  it  is  "  gayer "  there,  and  there  is  more 
\  "  society."     He  then  drew  a  contrast  between  Virginia,  as  he 
recollected  it,  and  Louisiana.     There  is  but  one  road  in  this 
country.     In  Virginia,  there  are  roads  running  in  every  direc- 
tion, and  often  crossing  each  other.     You  could  see  so  much 
more  "  society,"  and  there  was  so  much  more  "  variety  "  than 
here.     He  would  not  like  now  to  go  back  to  Virginia  to  live, 
because  he  had  got  used  to  this  country,  and  had  all  his  ac- 
quaintances here,  and  knew  the  ways  of  the  people.     He 
could  speak  French.     He  would  like  to  go  to  New  Orleans, 
though ;  would  rather  live  in  New  Orleans  than  any  other 
place  in  the  world. 

^  After  a  silence  of  some  minutes,  he  said,  abruptly — 
"If  I  was  free,  I  would  go  to  Virginia,  and  see  my  old 
mudder."  He  had  left  her  when  he  was  thirteen  years  old. 
He  reckoned  he  was  now  thirty-three.  "  I  don't  well  know, 
dough,  exactly,  how  old  I  is ;  but,  I  rec'lect,  de  day  I  was 
taken  away,  my  ole  mudder  she  tell  me  I  was  tirteen  year 
old."  He  did  not  like  to  come  away  at  all ;  he  "  felt  dread- 
ful bad ;"  but,  now  he  was  used  to  it,  he  liked  living  here. 
He  came  across  the  Blue  Eidge,  and  he  recollected  that,  when 
he  first  saw  it,  he  thought  it  was  a  dark  piece  of  sky,  and  he 
wondered  what  it  would  be  like  when  they  came  close  to  it. 
He  was  brought,  with  a  great  many  other  negroes,  in  wag- 
gons, to  Louisville  ;  and  then  they  were  put  on  board  a  steam- 
boat, and  brought  down  here.  He  was  sold,  and  put  on  this 
plantation,  and  had  been  on  it  ever  since.  He  had  been  twice 
sold,  along  with  it.  Folks  didn't  very  often  sell  their  ser- 


LOUISIANA.  335 

yants  away  here,  as  they  did  in  Virginia.  They  were  selling 
their  servants,  in  Virginia,  all  the  time ;  but,  here,  they  did 
not  very  often  sell  them,  except  they  run  away.  When  a 
man  would  run  away,  and  they  could  not  do  anything  with 
him,  they  always  sold  him  off.  The  people  were  almost  all 
French.  "  Were  there  any  French  in  New  York  ?"  he  asked. 
I  told  him  there  were  ;  hut  not  as  many  as  in  Louisiana.  "  I 
s'pose  dah  is  more  of  French  people  in  Lusiana,  dan  dah  is 
anywhar  else  in  all  de  world— a'nt  dah,  massa  ?" 

"Except  in  France." 

"  Wa's  dat,  sar  ?" 

"  France  is  the  country  where  all  the  Frenchmen  came 
from,  in  the  first  place." 

"  Wa's  dat  France,  massa  ?" 

"  France  is  a  country  across  the  ocean,  the  hig  water,  be- 
yond Virginia,  where  all  the  Frenchmen  first  came  from ; 
just  as  the  black  people  all  came  first  from  Africa,  you  know." 

"  I've  heered,  massa,  dat  dey  sell  one  anoder  dah,  in  de 
fus  place.  Does  you  know,  sar,  was  dat  so  ?"  This  was  said 
very  gravely. 

I  explained  the  savage  custom  of  making  slaves  of  prisoners 
of  war,  and  described  the  constant  wars  of  the  native  Africans. 
I  told  him  that  they  were  better  off  here  than  they  would  be 
to  be  the  slaves  of  cruel  savages,  in  Africa.  He  turned,  and 
looking  me  anxiously  in  the  face,  like  a  child,  asked : 

"  Is  de  brack  folks  better  off  to  be  here,  massa  ?" 

I  answered  that  I  thought  so ;  and  described  the  heathenish 
barbarism  of  the  people  of  Africa.  I  made  exception  of 
Liberia,  knowing  that  his  master  thought  of  some  time  send- 
ing him  there,  and  described  it  as  a  place  that  was  settled  by 
negroes  who  went  back  there  from  this  country.  He  said  he 
had  heard  of  it,  and  that  they  had  sent  a  great  many  free 
negroes  from  New  Orleans  there. 


336  COTTON    AND    SLAVEBY. 

f     After  a  moment's  pause,  he  inquired — very  gravely,  again : 
/         "  Why  is  it,  massa,  when  de  brack  'people  is  free,  dey 
^       wants  to  send  'em  away  out  of  dis  country  ?" 

The  question  took  me  aback.  After  bungling  a  little — for 
I  did  not  like  to  tell  him  the  white  people  were  afraid  to  have 
them  stay  here — I  said  that  it  was  thought  to  be  a  better 
place  for  them  there.  He  replied,  he  should  think,  that,  when 
they  had  got  used  to  this  country,  it  was  much  better  that  they 
should  be  allowed  to  stay  here.  He  would  not  like  to  go  out 
of  this  country.  He  wouldn't  like  even  to  go  to  Virginia  now, 
though  Virginia  was  such  a  pleasant  country ;  he  had  been 
here  so  .long,  seemed  like  this  was  the  best  place  for  him  to 
live.  To  avoid  discussion  of  the  point,  I  as"ked  what  he  would 
do,  if  he  were  free  ?  ,  • 

"  If  I  was  free,  massa ;  if  I  was  free  (with  great  anima- 
tion), I  would well,  sar,  de  fus  thing  I  would  do,  if  I  was 

free,  I  would  go  to  work  for  a  year,  and  get  some  money  for 
myself, — den — den — den,  massa,  dis  is  what  I  do — I  buy  me, 
fus  place,  a  little  house,  and  little  lot  land,  and  den — no ; 
den — den — I  would  go  to  old  Virginny,  and  see  my  old  mud- 
der.  Yes,  sar,  I  would  like  to  do  dat  fus  thing  ;  den,  when  I 
com  back,  de  fus  thing  I'd  do,  I'd  get  me  a  wife ;  den,  I'd 
take  her  to  my  house,  and  I  would  live  with  her  dar ;  and  I 
would  raise  things  in  my  garden,  and  take  'em  to  New  Orleans? 
and  sell  'em  dar,  in  de  market.  Dat's  de  way  I  would  live,  if 
I  was  free." 

He  said,  in  answer  to  further  inquiries,  that  there  were 
many  free  negroes  all  about  this  region.  Some  were  very 
rich.  He  pointed  out  to  me  three  plantations,  within  twenty 
miles,  owned  by  coloured  men.  These  bought  black  folks,  he 
said,  and  had  servants  of  their  own.  They  were  very  bad 
masters,  very  hard  and  cruel — hadn't  any  feeling.  "  You 
might  think  master,  dat  dey  would  be  good  to  dar  own  nation  ; 


LOUISIANA. 

but  dey  is  not.  I  will  tell  you  de  truth,  massa  ;  I  know  I'se 
got  to  answer ;  and  it's  a  fact,  dey  is  very  bad  masters,  sar. 
I'd  rather  be  a  servant  to  any  man  in  de  world,  dan  to  a  brack 
man.  If  I  was  sold  to  a  brack  man,  I'd  drown  myself.  I 
would  dat— I'd  drown  myself!  dough  I  shouldn't  like  to  do 
dat  nudder  ;  but  I  wouldn't  be  sold  to  a  coloured  master  for 
any  ting." 

If  he  had  got  to  be  sold,  he  would  like  best  to  have  an 
American  master  buy  him.  The  French  people  did  not  clothe 
their  servants  well ;  though  now  they  did  much  better  than 
when  he  first  came  to  Louisiana.  The  French  masters  were 
very  severe,  and  "  dey  whip  dar  niggers  most  to  deff— dey 
whip  de  flesh  off  of  'em." 

Nor  did  they  feed  them  as  well  as  the  Americans.  "  Why, 
sometimes,  massa,  dey  only  gives  'em  dry  corn— don't  give 
out  no  meat  at  all."  I  told  him  this  could  not  be  so,  for  the 
law  required  that  every  master  should  serve  out  meat  to  his 
negroes.  "  Oh,  but  some  on  'em  don't  mind  Law,  if  he  does 
say  so,  massa.  Law  never  here  ;  don't  know  anything  about 
him.  Very  often,  dey  only  gives  'em  dry  corn  —I  knows  dat ; 
I  sees  de  niggers.  Didn't  you  see  de  niggers  on  our  planta- 
tion, sar  ?  Well,  you  nebber  see  such  a  good-looking  lot  of 
niggers  as  ours  on  any  of  de  French  plantations,  did  you, 
massa  ?  Why,  dey  all  looks  fat,  and  dey's  all  got  good  clothes, 
and  dey  look  as  if  dey  all  had  plenty  to  eat,  and  hadn't  got 
no  work  to  do,  ha  !  ha  !  ha !  Don't  dey  ?  But  dey  does  work, 
dough.  Dey  does  a  heap  o'  work.  But  dey  don't  work  so 
hard  as  dey  does  on  some  ob  de  French  plantations.  Oh,  dey 
does  work  too  hard  on  dem,  sometimes." 

"  You  work  hard  in  the  grinding  season,  don't  you  ?" 

"  0,  yes ;  den  we  works  hard ;  we  has  to  work  hard  den : 
iuinlrr  dan  any  oder  time  of  year.  But,  I  tell  'ou,  massa,  I 
likes  to  hab  de  grinding  season  come;  yes,  I  does — rader 

VOL.  I.  z 


338  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

dan  any  oder  time  of  year,  dough  we  work  so  hard  den.  I 
wish  it  was  grinding  season  all  de  yearroun' — only  Sundays." 

"Why?" 

"  Because — oh,  because  it's  merry  and  lively.  All  de  brack 
people  like  it  when  we  begin  to  grind." 

"  You  have  to  keep  grinding  Sundays  ?" 

"  Yes,  can't  stop,  when  we  begin  to  grind,  till  we  get  tru.'' 

"  You  don't  often  work  Sundays,  except  then  ?" 

"  No,  massa !  nebber  works  Sundays,  except  when  der 
crap's  weedy,  and  we  want  to  get  tru  'fore  rain  conies  ;  den, 
wen  we  work  a  Sunday,  massa  gives  us  some  oder  day  for 
holiday — Monday,  if  we  get  tru." 

He  said  that,  on  the  French  plantations,  they  oftener  work 
Sundays  than  on  the  American.  They  used  to  work  almost 
always  on  Sundays,  on  the  French  plantations,  when  he  was 
first  brought  to  Louisiana  ;  but  they  did  not  so  much  now. 

We  were  passing  a  hamlet  of  cottages,  occupied  by  Acadians, 
or  what  the  planters  call  habitans,  poor  white  French  Creoles. 
The  negroes  had  always  been  represented  to  me  to  despise  the 
habitans,  and  to  look  upon  them  as  their  own  inferiors ;  but 
William  spoke  of  them  respectfully ;  and,  when  I  tempted 
him  to  sneer  at  their  indolence  and  vagabond  habits,  refused 
to  do  so,  but  insisted  very  strenuously  that  they  were  "  very 
good  people,"  orderly  and  industrious.  He  assured  me  that 
I  was  mistaken  in  supposing  that  the  Creoles,  who  did  not 
own  slaves,  did  not  live  comfortably,  or  that  they  did  not  work 
as  hard  as  they  ought  for  their  living.  There  were  no  better 
sort  of  people  than  they  were,  he  thought.  « 

He  again  recurred  to  the  fortunate  condition  of  the  negroes 
on  his  master's  plantation.  He  thought  it  was  the  best  plan- 
tation in  the  State,  and  he  did  not  believe  there  was  a  better 
lot  of  negroes  in  the  State;  some  few  of  them,  whom  his 
masier  had  brought  from  his  former  plantation,  were  old ;  but 


LOUISIANA.  339 

altogether,  they  were  "as  right  good  a  lot  of  niggers"  as 
could  be  found  anywhere.  They  could  do  all  the  work  that 
was  necessary  to  be  done  on  the  plantation.  On  some  old 
plantations  they  had  not  nearly  as  many  negroes  as  they 
needed  to  make  the  crop,  and  they  "  drove  'em  awful  hard ;" 
but  it  wasn't  so  on  his  master's :  they  could  do  all  the  work, 
and  do  it  well,  and  it  was  the  best  worked  plantation,  and 
made  the  most  sugar  to  the  hand  of  any  plantation  he  knew 
of.  All  the  niggers  had  enough  to  eat,  and  were  well 
clothed ;  their  quarters  were  good,  and  they  got  a  good  many 
presents.  He  was  going  on  enthusiastically,  when  I  asked : 

"  Well,  now,  wouldn't  you  rather  live  on  such  a  plantation 
than  to  be  free,  William  ?" 

"  Oh  !  no,  sir,  I'd  rather  be  free  !  Oh,  yes,  sir,  I'd  like  it 
better  to  be  free ;  I  would  dat,  master." 

"  Why  would  you  ?" 

"  Why,  you  see,  master,  if  I  was  free — if  I  was/ree,  I'd 
have  all  my  time  to  myself.  I'd  rather  work  for  myself. 
Yes.  I'd  like  dat  oetter." 

"But  then,  you  know,  you'd  have  to  take  care  of  jourself, 
and  you'd  get  poor." 

"  No,  sir,  I  would  not  get  poor,  I  would  get  rich ;  for  you 
see,  master,  then  I'd  work  all  the  time  for  myself." 

"  Suppose  all  the  black  people  on  your  plantation,  or  all  the 
black  people  hi  the  country  were  made  free  at  once,  what  do 
you  think  would  become  of  them  ?— what  would  they  do,  do 
you  think  ?  You  don't  suppose  there  would  be  much  sugar 
raised,  do  you  ?" 

"  Why,  yes,  master,  I  do.  Why  not,  sir  ?  What  would 
de  brack  people  do?  Wouldn't  dey  hab  to  work  for  dar 
libben  ?  and  de  wite  people  own  all  de  land— war  dey  gom'  to 
work  ?  Dey  hire  demself  right  out  again,  and  work  all  da 
same  as  before.  And  den,  wen  dey  work  for  demself,  dey 

z  2 


340 


COTTON    AUTD    SLAVERY. 


work  harder  dan  dey  do  now  to  get  more  wages — a  heap 
harder.  I  tink  so,  sir.  I  would  do  so,  sir.  I  would  work 
for  hire.  I  don't  own  any  land ;  I  hab  to  work  right  away 
again  for  massa,  to  get  some  money." 

Perceiving  from  the  readiness  of  these  answers  that  the  sub- 
ject had  been  a  familiar  one  with  him,  I  immediately  asked : 
"  The  black  people  talk  among  themselves  about  this,  do  they ; 
and  they  think  so  generally  ?" 

"  Oh  !  yes,  sir ;  dey  talk  so ;  dat's  wat  dey  tink." 

"  Then  they  talk  about  being  free  a  good  deal,  do  they  ?" 

"  Yes,  sir.  Dey— dat  is,  dey  say  dey  wish  it  was  so ;  dat's 
all  dey  talk,  master — dat's  all,  sir.'' 

His  caution  was  evidently  excited,  and  I  inquired  no 
further.  We  were  passing  a  large  old  plantation,  the  cabins 
of  the  negroes  upon  which  were  wretched  hovels — small, 
without  windows,  and  dilapidated.  A  large  gang  of  negroes 
were  at  work  by  the  road-side,  planting  cane.  Two  white 
men  were  sitting  on  horseback,  looking  at  them,  and  a  negro- 
driver  was  walking  among  them,  with  a  whip  in  his  hand. 

William  said  that  this  was  an  old  Creole  plantation,  and  the 
negroes  on  it  were  worked  very  hard.  There  was  three  times 
as  much  land  in  it  as  in  his  master's,  and  only  about  the  same 
number  of  negroes  to  work  it.  I  observed,  however,  that  a 
good  deal  of  land  had  been  left  uncultivated  the  previous  year. 
The  slaves  appeared  to  be  working  hard ;  they  were  shabbily 
clothed,  and  had  a  cowed  expression,  looking  on  the  ground, 
not  even  glancing  at  us,  as  we  passed,  and  were  perfectly 
silent. 

"  Dem's  all  Creole  niggers,"  said  William :  "  ain't  no  Vir- 
ginny  niggers  dah.  I  reckon  you  didn't  see  no  such  looking 
niggers  as  dem  on  oiu:  plantation,  did  you,  master  ?" 

After  answering  some  inquiries  about  the  levee,  close  inside 
of  which  the  road  continually  ran,  he  asked  me  about  the 


LOUISIANA.  341 

levee  at  New  York ;  and  when  informed  that  we  had  not  any 
levee,  asked  me  with  a  good  deal  of  surprise,  how  we  kept  the 
water  out  ?  I  explained  to  him  that  the  land  was  higher 
than  the  water,  and  was  not  liahle,  as  it  was  in  Louisiana, 
to  be  overflowed.  I  could  not  make  him  understand  this. 
He  seemed  never  to  have  considered  that  it  was  not  the 
natural  order  of  things  that  land  should  be  lower  than  water, 
or  that  men  should  be  able  to  live  on  land,  except  by  ex-* 
eluding  water  artificially.  At  length,  he  said : — 

"  I  s'pose  dis  heah  State  is  de  lowest  State  dar  is  in  de 
world.  Dar  ain't  no  odder  State  dat  is  low  so  as  dis  is.  I 
s'pose  it  is  five  thousand  five  hundred  feet  lower  dan  any  odder 
State." 

"What?" 

"  I  s'pose,  master,  dat  dis  heah  State  is  five  thousand  five 
hundred  feet  lower  down  dan  any  odder,  ain't  it,  sir  ?" 

"  I  don't  understand  you." 

"  I  say  dis  heah is.de lowest  ob  de  States,  master.  I  s'pose 
it's  five  thousand  five  hundred  feet  lower  dan  any  odder ; 
lower  down,  ain't  it,  master  ?" 

"  Yes,  it's  very  low." 

This  is  a  good  illustration  of  the  child-like  quality  common 
in  the  negroes,  and  which  in  him  was  particularly  noticeable, 
notwithstanding  the  shrewdness  of  some  of  his  observations. 
Such  an  apparent  mingling  of  simplicity  and  cunning,  in- 
genuousness and  slyness,  detracted  much  from  the  weight  of 
his  opinions  and  purposes  in  regard  to  freedom.  I  could  not 
but  have  a  strong  doubt  if  he  would  keep  to  his  word,  if  the 
opportunity  were  allowed  him  to  try  his  ability  to  take  care 
of  himself. 


342  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

FROM   LOUISIANA   THROUGH   TEXAS. 

THE  largest  part  of  the  cotton  crop  of  the  United  States  is 
now  produced  in  the  Mississippi  valley,  including  the  lands 
contiguous  to  its  great  Southern  tributary  streams,  the  Bed 
Eiver  and  others.     The  proportion  of  the  whole  crop  which  is 
produced  in  this  region  is  constantly  and  very  rapidly  increa- 
sing.    This  increase  is  chiefly  gained  hy  the  forming  of  new 
plantations  and  the  transfer  of  slave-lahour  westward.     The 
common  planter  of  this  region  lives  very  differently  to  those 
whose  plantations  I  have  hitherto  described.     What  a  very 
different  person  he  is,  and  what  a  very  different  thing  his 
plantation  is  from  the  class  usually  visited  by  travellers  in  the 
South,  I  learned  by  an  extended  experience.      I   presume 
myself  to  have  been  ordinarily  well-informed  when  I  started 
from  home,  but  up  to  this  point  in  my  first  journey  had  no 
correct  idea  of  the  condition  and  character  of  the  common  cot- 
ton-planters.   I  use  the  word  common  in  reference  to  the  whole 
region :  there  are  some  small  districts  in  which  the  common 
planter  is  a  rich  man — really  rich.     But  over  the  whole  dis- 
trict there  are  comparatively  few  of  these,  and  in  this  and 
the  next  chapter,  I  shall  show  what  the  many  are — as  I  found 
them.     I  shall  draw  for  this  purpose  upon  a  record  of  ex- 
perience extending  through  nearly  twelve  months,  but  ob- 
tained in  different  journeys  and  in  two  different  years. 
My  first  observation  of  the  common  cotton-planters  was 


LOUISIANA.  343 

had  on  the  steamboat,  between  Montgomery  and  Mobile,  and 
has  already  been  described.  My  second  experience  among 
them  was  on  a  steamboat  bound  up  Ked  Eiver. 

On  a  certain  Saturday  morning,  when  I  had  determined 
upon  the  trip,  I  found  that  two  boats,  the  Swamp  Fox  and 
the  St.  Charles,  were  advertised  to  leave  the  same  evening, 
for  the  Ked  Eiver.  I  went  to  the  levee,  and,  finding  the 
Saint  Charles  to  be  the  better  of  the  two,  I  asked  her  clerk 
if  I  could  engage  a  state-room.  There  was  just  one  state- 
room berth  left  unengaged;  I  was  requested  to  place  my 
name  against  its  number  on  the  passenger-book  ;  and  did  so, 
understanding  that  it  was  thus  secured  for  me. 

Having  taken  leave  of  my  friends,  I  had  my  luggage 
brought  down,  and  went  on  board  at  half-past  three — the 
boat  being  advertised  to  sail  at  four.  Four  o'clock  passed, 
and  freight  was  still  being  taken  on — a  fire  had  been  made  in 
the  furnace,  and  the  boat's  big  bell  was  rung.  I  noticed  that 
the  Swamp  Fox  was  also  firing  up,  and  that  her  bell  rang 
whenever  ours  did — though  she  was  not  advertised  to  sail  till 
five.  At  length,  when  five  o'clock  came,  the  clerk  told  me 
he  thought,  perhaps,  they  would  not  be  able  to  get  off  at  all 
that  night — there  was  so  much  freight  still  to  come  on  board. 
Six  o'clock  arrived,  and  he  felt  certain  that,  if  they  did  get  off 
that  night,  it  would  not  be  till  very  late.  At  half-past  six, 
he  said  the  captain  had  not  come  on  board  yet,  and  he  was 
quite  sure  they  would  not  be  able  to  get  off  that  night. 
I  prepared  to  return  to  the  hotel,  and  asked  if  they  would 
leave  in  the  morning.  He  thought  not.  He  was  confident 
they  would  not.  He  was  positive  they  could  not  leave  now, 
before  Monday — Monday  noon.  Monday  at  twelve  o'clock — 
I  might  rely  upon  it. 

Monday  morning,  The  Picayune  stated,  editorially,  that 
the  floating  palace,  the  St.  Charles,  would  leave  for  Shi-eve- 


344  COTTON    AND    SLAVEKY. 

port,  at  five  o'clock,  and  if  anybody  wanted  to  make  a  quick 
and  luxurious  trip  up  Eed  River,  with  a  jolly  good  soul,  Cap- 
tain Lickup  was  in  command.  It  also  stated,  in  another 
paragraph,  that,  if  any  of  its  friends  had  any  business  up  Eed 
River,  Captain  Pitchup  was  a  whole-souled  veteran  in  that 
trade,  and  was  going  up  with  that  remarkably  low  draft- 
favourite,  the  Swamp  Fox,  to  leave  at  four  o'clock  that 
evening.  Both  boats  were  also  announced,  in  the  advertising 
columns,  to  leave  at  four  o'clock. 

As  the  clerk  had  said  noon,  however,  I  thought  there  might 
have  been  a  misprint  in  the  newspaper  announcements,  and 
so  went  on  board  the  St.  Charles  again  before  twelve.  The 
clerk  informed  me  that  the  newspaper  was  right — they  had 
finally  concluded  not  to  sail  till  four  o'clock.  Before  four,  I 
returned  again,  and  the  boat  again  fired  up,  and  rang  her 
bell.  So  did  the  Swamp  Fox.  Neither,  however,  was  quite 
ready  to  leave  at  four  o'clock.  Not  quite  ready  at  five.  Even 
at  six-  not  yet  quite  ready.  At  seven,  the  fires  having 
burned  out  in  the  furnace,  and  the  stevedores  having  gone 
away,  leaving  a  quantity  of  freight  yet  on  the  dock,  without 
advising  this  time  with  the  clerk,  I  had  my  baggage  re-trans- 
ferred to  the  hotel. 

A  similar  performance  was  repeated  on  Tuesday. 

On  Wednesday,  I  found  the  berth  I  had  engaged  occupied 
by  a  very  strong  man,  who  was  not  very  polite,  when  I  in- 
formed him  that  I  believed  there  was  some  mistake — that  the 
berth  he  was  using  had  been  engaged  to  me.  I  went  to  the 
clerk,  who  said  that  he  was  sorry,  but  that,  as  I  had  not  stayed 
on  board  at  night,  and  had  not  paid  for  the  berth,  he  had  not 
been  sure  that  I  should  go,  and  he  had,  therefore,  given  it  to 
the  gentleman  who  now  had  it  in  possession,  and  whom,  he 
thought,  it  would  not  be  best  to  try  to  reason  out  of  it.  He 
was  very  busy,  he  observed,  because  the  boat  was  going  to 


LOUISIANA.  345 

start  at  four  o'clock ;  if  I  would  now  pay  him  the  price  of 
passage,  he  would  do  the  best  he  could  for  me.  When  he  had 
time  to  examine,  he  could  probably  put  me  in  some  other 
state-room,  perhaps  quite  as  good  a  one  as  that  I  had  lost. 
Meanwhile  he  kindly  offered  me  the  temporary  use  of  his 
private  state-room.  I  inquired  if  it  was  quite  certain  that 
the  boat  would  get  off  at  four  ;  for  I  had  been  asked  to  dine 
with  a  friend,  at  three  o'clock.  There  was  not  the  smallest 
doubt  of  it— at  four  they  would  leave.  They  were  all  ready, 
at  that  moment,  and  only  waited  till  four,  because  the  agent 
had  advertised  that  they  would — merely  a  technical  point  of 
honour. 

But,  by  some  error  of  calculation,  I  suppose,  she  didn't  go 
at  four.  Nor  at  five.  Nor  at  six. 

At  seven  o'clock,  the  Swamp  Fox  and  the  St.  Charles  were 
both  discharging  dense  smoke  from  their  chimneys,  blowing 
steam,  and  ringing  bells.  It  was  otvious  that  each  was 
making  every  exertion  to  get  off  before  the  other.  The  cap- 
tains of  both  boats  stood  at  the  break  of  the  hurricane  deck, 
apparently  waiting  in  great  impatience  for  the  mails  to  come 
on  board. 

The  St.  Charles  was  crowded  with  passengers,  and  her 
decks  were  piled  high  with  freight.  Bumboatmen,  about  the 
bows,  were  offering  shells,  and  oranges,  and  bananas;  and 
newsboys,  and  peddlers,  and  tract  distributors,  were  squeezing 
about  with  their  wares  among  the  passengers.  I  had  confi- 
dence in  their  instinct ;  there  had  been  no  such  numbers  of 
them  the  previous  evenings,  and  I  made  up  my  mind,  although 
past  seven  o'clock,  that  the  St.  Charles  would  not  let  her  fires 
go  down  again. 

Among  the  peddlers  there  were  two  of  "  cheap  literature," 
and  among  their  yellow  covers,  each  had  two  or  three  copies 
of  the  cheap  edition  (pamphlet)  of  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin."  They 


346  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

did  not  cry  it  out  as  they  did  the  other  books  they  had,  but 
held  it  forth  among  others,  so  its  title  could  be  seen.  One  of 
them  told  me  he  carried  it  because  gentlemen  often  inquired 
for  it,  and  he  sold  a  good  many ;  at  least  three  copies  were 
sold  to  passengers  on  the  boat.  Another  young  man,  who 
looked  like  a  beneficiary  of  the  Education  Society,  endeavour- 
ing to  pass  a  college  vacation  in  a  useful  and  profitable  man- 
ner, was  peddling  a  Bible  Defence  of  Slavery,  which  he  made 
eloquent  appeals,  in  the  manner  of  a  pastoral  visit,  to  us, 
each  personally,  to  purchase.  He  said  it  was  prepared  by  a 
clergyman  of  Kentucky,  and  every  slaveholder  ought  to  pos- 
sess it.  When  he  came  to  me,  I  told  him  that  I  owned  no 
slaves,  and  therefore  had  no  occasion  for  it.  He  answered 
that  the  world  was  before  me,  and  I  perhaps  yet  might  own 
many  of  them.  I  replied  so  decidedly  that  I  should  not,  that 
he  appeared  to  be  satisfied  that  my  conscience  would  not  need 
the  book,  and  turned  back  again  to  a  man  sitting  beside  me, 
who  had  before  refused  to  look  at  it.  He  now  urged  again 
that  he  should  do  so,  and  forced  it  into  his  hands,  open  at  the 
title-page,  on  which  was  a. vignette,  representing  a  circle  of 
coloured  gentlemen  and  ladies,  sitting  around  a  fire-place  with 
a  white  person  standing  behind  them,  like  a  servant,  reading 
from  a  book.  "  Here  we  see  the  African  race  as  it  is  in 
America,  under  the  blessed " 

"  Now  you  go  to  hell !  I've  told  you  three  times  I  didn't 
want  your  book.  If  you  bring  it  here  again  I'll  throw  it 
overboard.  I  own  niggers  ;  and  I  calculate  to  own  m&re  of 
'em,  if  I  can  get  'em,  but  I  don't  want  any  damn'd  preachin' 
about  it." 

That  was  the  last  I  saw  of  the  book-peddler. 

It  was  twenty  minutes  after  seven  when  the  captain  ob- 
served— scanning  the  levee  in  every  direction,  to  see  if  there 
was  another  cart  or  carriage  coming  towards  us— "No  use 


LOUISIANA  347 

waiting  any  longer,  I  reckon :  throw  off,  Mr.  Heady."  (The 
Swamp  Fox  did  not  leave,  I  afterwards  heard,  till  the  follow- 
ing Saturday.) 

We  backed  out,  winded  round  head  up,  and  as  we  began  to 
breast  the  current  a  dozen  of  the  negro  boat-hands,  standing 
on  the  freight,  piled  up  on  the  low  forecastle,  began  to  sing, 
waving  hats  and  handkerchiefs,  and  shirts  lashed  to  poles, 
towards  the  people  who  stood  on  the  sterns  of  the  steamboats 
at  the  levee.  After  losing  a  few  lines,  I  copied  literally  into 
my  note-book : 

"  Te  see  dem  boat  way  dah  ahead. 
CHORUS. — Oahoiohieu. 

De  San  Charles  is  arter  'em,  dey  mus  go  behine. 
CHO. — Oahoiohieu, 

So  stir  up  dah,  my  livelies,  stir  her  up ;  (pointing  to  the 
furnaces). 

CHO. — Oahoiohieu. 

Dey's  burnin'  not'n  but  fat  and  rosum. 
CHO. — Oahoiohieu. 

Oh,  we  is  gwine  up  de  Red  River,  oh ! 
CHO. — Oahoiohieu. 

Oh,  we  mus  part  from  you  dah  asho'. 
CHO. — Oahoiohieu. 

Give  my  lub  to  Dinah,  oh ! 

CHO. — Oahoiohieu. 

For  we  is  gwine  up  de  Red  River. 
CHO. — Oahoiohieu. 

Yes,  we  is  gwine  up  de  Red  River. 
CHO. — Oahoiohieu. 

Oh,  we  must  part  from  you  dah,  oh. 
CHO. — Oahoiohieu. ' ' 

The  wit  introduced  into  these  songs  has,  I  suspect,  been 
rather  over  estimated 

As  soon  as  the  song  was  ended,  I  went  into  the  cabin  to 
remind  the  clerk  to  obtain  a  berth  for  me.  I  found  tw 


348  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

brilliant  supper-tables  reaching  the  whole  length  of  the  long 
cabin,  and  a  file  of  men  standing  on  each  side  of  both  of  them, 
ready  to  take  seats  as  soon  as  the  signal  was  given. 

The  clerk  was  in  his  room,  with  two  other  men,  and  ap- 
peared to  be  more  occupied  than  ever.  His  manner  was,  I 
thought,  now  rather  cool,  not  to  say  rude ;  and  he  very 
distinctly  informed  me  that  every  berth  was  occupied,  and  he 
didn't  know  where  I  was  to  sleep.  He  judged  I  was  able  to 
take  care  of  myself;  and  if  I  was  not,  he  was  quite  sure  that 
he  had  too  much  to  do  to  give  all  his  time  to  my  surveillance. 
I  then  went  to  the  commander,  and  told  him  that  I  thought 
myself  entitled  to  a  berth.  I  had  paid  for  one,  and  should 
not  have  taken  passage  in  the  boat,  if  it  had  not  been  pro- 
mised me.  I  was  not  disposed  to  fight  for  it,  particularly  as 
the  gentleman  occupying  the  berth  engaged  to  me  was  a  deal 
bigger  fellow  than  I,  and  also  carried  a  bigger  knife ;  but  I 
thought  the  clerk  was  accountable  to  me  for  a  berth,  and  I 
begged  that  he  would  inform  him  so.  He  replied  that  the 
clerk  probably  knew  his  business  ;  he  had  nothing  to  do  with 
it ;  and  walked  away  from  me.  I  then  addressed  myself  to  a 
second  clerk,  or  sub-officer  of  some  denomination,  who  more 
good-naturedly  informed  me  that  half  the  company  were  in 
the  same  condition  as  myself,  and  I  needn't  be  alarmed,  cots 
would  be  provided  for  us. 

As  I  saw  that  the  supper-table  was  likely  to  be  crowded,  I 
asked  if  there  would  be  a  second  table.  "  Yes,  they'll  keep 
on  eatin'  till  they  all  get  through."  I  walked  the  deck  till  I 
saw  those  who  had  been  first  seated  at  the  table  coming  out ; 
then  going  in,  I  found  the  table  still  crowded,  while  many 
stood  waiting  to  take  seats  as  fast  as  any  were  vacated.  I 
obtained  one  for  myself  at  length,  and  had  no  sooner  occupied 
it  than  two  half-intoxicated  and  garrulous  men  took  the  ad- 
joining stools. 


LOUISIANA.  349 

It  was  near  nine  o'clock  before  the  tables  were  cleared 
away,  and  immediately  afterwards  the  waiters  began  to  rig  a 
framework  for  sleeping-cots  in  their  place.  These  cots  were 
simply  canvas  shelves,  five  feet  and  a  half  long,  two  wide, 
and  less  than  two  feet  apart,  perpendicularly.  A  waiter, 
whose  good  will  I  hacl  purchased  at  the  supper-table,  gave 
me  a  hint  to  secure  one  of  them  for  myself,  as  soon  as  they 
were  erected,  by  putting  my  hat  in  it.  I  did  so,  and  saw 
that  others  did  the  same.  I  chose  a  cot  as  near  as  possible 
to  the  midship  doors  of  the  cabin,  perceiving  that  there  was 
not  likely  to  be  the  best  possible  air,  after  all  the  passengers 
were  laid  up  for  the  night,  in  this  compact  manner. 

Nearly  as  fast  as  the  cots  were  ready  they  were  occupied. 
To  make  sure  that  mine  was  not  stolen  from  me,  I  also, 
without  much  undressing,  laid  myself  away.  A  single  blanket 
was  the  only  bed-clothing  provided.  I  had  not  lain  long, 
before  I  was  driven,  by  an  exceedingly  offensive  smell,  to 
search  for  a  cleaner  neighbourhood ;  but  I  found  all  the  cots, 
fore  and  aft,  were  either  occupied  or  engaged.  I  immediately 
returned,  and  that  I  might  have  a  dernier  ressort,  left  my 
shawl  in  that  I  had  first  obtained. 

In  the  forward  part  of  the  cabin  there  was  a  bar,  a  stove,  a 
table,  and  a  placard  of  rules,  forbidding  smoking,  gambling, 
and  swearing  in  the  cabin,  and  a  close  company  of  drinkers, 
smokers,  card-players,  and  constant  swearers.  I  went  out, 
and  stepped  down  to  the  boiler-deck.  The  boat  had  been 
provided  with  very  poor  wood,  and  the  firemen  were  crowding 
it  into  the  furnaces  whenever  they  could  find  room  for  it, 
driving  smaller  sticks  between  the  larger  ones  at  the  top,  by 
a  battering-ram  method. 

Most  of  the  firemen  were  Irish  born ;  one  with  whom  I 
conversed  was  English.  He  said  they  were  divided  into  three 
watches,  each  working  four  hours  at  a  time,  and  all  hands 


350  COTTON   AND   SLAVERY. 

liable  to  be  called,  when  wooding,  or  landing,  or  taking  on 
freight,  to  assist  the  deck  hands.  They  were  paid  now  but 
thirty  dollars  a  month — ordinarily  forty,  and  sometimes  sixty 
— and  board.  He  was  a  sailor  bred.  This  boat-life  was  harder 
than  seafaring,  but  the  pay  was  better,  and  the  trips  were 
short.  The  regular  thing  was  to  make  two  trips,  and  then 
lay  up  for  a  spree.  It  would  be  too  hard  upon  a  man,  he 
thought,  to  pursue  it  regularly ;  two  trips  "  on  end  "  was  as 
much  as  a  man  could  stand.  He  must  then  take  a  "  refresh- 
ment." Working  this  way  for  three  weeks,  and  then  refresh- 
ing for  about  one,  he  did  not  think  it  was  unhealthy,  no  more 
so  than  ordinary  seafaring.  He  concluded,  by  informing  me 
that  the  most  striking  peculiarity  of  the  business  was,  that  it 
kept  a  man,  notwithstanding  wholesale  periodical  refreshment, 
very  dry.  He  was  of  opinion  that  after  the  information  I 
had  obtained,  if  I  gave  him  at  least  the  price  of  a  single 
drink,  and  some  tobacco,  it  would  be  characteristic  of  a 
gentleman. 

Going  round  behind  the  furnace,  I  found  a  large  quantity 
of  freight :  hogsheads,  barrels,  cases,  bales,  boxes,  nail-rods, 
rolls  of  leather,  ploughs,  cotton,  bale-rope,  and  fire-wood,  all 
thrown  together  in  the  most  confused  manner,  with  hot 
steam-pipes,  and  parts  of  the  engine  crossing  through  it. 
As  I  explored  further  aft,  I  found  negroes  lying  asleep,  in  all 
postures,  upon  the  freight.  A  single  group  only,  of  five  or 
six,  appeared  to  be  awake,  and  as  I  drew  near  they  com- 
menced to  sing  a  Methodist  hymn,  not  loudly,  as  negroes 
generally  do,  but,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  with  a  good  deal  of 
tenderness  and  feeling ;  a  few  white  people — men,  women, 
and  children — were  lying  here  and  there,  among  the  negroes. 
Altogether,  I  learned  we  had  two  hundred  of  these  deck 
passengers,  black  and  white.  A  stove,  by  which  they  could 
fry  bacon,  was  the  only  furniture  provided  for  them  by  the 


LOUISIANA.  351 

boat.    They  carried  with  them  their  provisions  for  the  voyage, 
and  had  their  choice  of  the  freight  for  beds. 

As  I  came  to  the  bows  again,  and  was  about  to  ascend  to 
the  cabin,  two  men  came  down,  one  of  whom  I  recognized  to 
have  been  my  cot  neighbour.  "  Where's  a  bucket  ?"  said 
he.  "  By  thunder !  this  fellow  was  so  strong  I  could  not 
sleep  by  him,  s"o  I  stumped  him  to  come  down  and  wash  his 
feet."  "  I  am  much  obliged  to  you,"  said  I ;  and  I  was,  very 
much ;  the  man  had  been  lying  in  the  cot  beneath  mine,  to 
which  I  now  returned  and  soon  fell  asleep. 

I  awoke  about  midnight.  There  was  an  unusual  jar  in  the 
boat,  and  an  evident  excitement  among  people  whom  I  could 
hear  talking  on  deck.  I  rolled  out  of  my  cot,  and  stepped 
out  on  the  gallery.  The  steamboat  Kimball  was  running 
head-and-head  with  us,  and  so  close  that  one  might  have 
jumped  easily  from  our  paddle-box  on  to  her  guards.  A  few 
other  passengers  had  turned  out  beside  myself,  and  most  of 
the  waiters  were  leaning  on  the  rail  of  the  gallery.  Occa- 
sionally a  few  words  of  banter  passed  between  them  and  the 
waiters  of  the  Kimball ;  below,  the  firemen  were  shouting  as 
they  crowded  the  furnaces,  and  some  one  could  be  heard 
cheering  them :  "  Shove  her  up,  boys  !  Shove  her  up  !  Give 
her  hell !"  "  She's  got  to  hold  a  conversation  with  us  before 
she  gets  by,  anyhow,"  said  one  of  the  negroes.  "  Ye  har 
that  ar'  whistlin'  ?"  said  a  white  man ;  "  tell  ye  thar  an't  any 
too  much  water  in  her  bilers  when  ye  har  that."  I  laughed 
silently,  but  was  not  without  a  slight  expectant  sensation, 
which  Burke  would  perhaps  have  called  sublime.  At  length 
the  Kimball  slowly  drew  ahead,  crossed  our  bow,  and  the 
contest  was  given  up.  "De  ole  lady  too  heavy,"  said  a 
waiter ;. "  if  I  could  pitch  a  few  ton  of  dat  ar  freight  off  her 
bow,  I'd  bet  de  Kimball  would  be  askin'  her  to  show  de  way 
mighty  quick." 


352  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

At  half-past  four  o'clock  a  hand-bell  was  rung  in  the  cabin, 
and  soon  afterwards  I  was  informed  that  I  must  get  up,  that 
the  servants  might  remove  the  cot  arrangement,  and  clear 
the  cabin  for  the  breakfast-table. 

Breakfast  was  not  ready  till  half-past  seven.  The  passen- 
gers, one  set  after  another,  and  then  the  pilots,  clerks,  mates, 
and  engineers,  and  then  the  free  coloured  people,  and  then  the 
waiters,  chambermaids,  and  passengers'  body  servants,  having 
breakfasted,  the  tables  were  cleared,  and  the  cabin  swept. 
The  tables  were  then  again  laid  for  dinner.  Thus  the  greater 
part  of  the  cabin  was  constantly  occupied,  and  the  passengers 
who  had  no  state-rooms  were  driven  to  herd  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  card-tables  and  the  bar,  the  lobby  (Social  Hall,  I  believe 
it  is  called),  in  which  most  of  the  passengers'  baggage  was 
deposited,  or  to  go  outside.  Every  part  of  the  boat,  except 
the  bleak  hurricane  deck,  was  crowded ;  and  so  large  a 
number  of  equally  uncomfortable  and  disagreeable  people  I 
think  I  never  saw  elsewhere  together.  We  made  very  slow 
progress,  landing,  it  seems  to  me,  after  we  entered  Red  Eiver, 
at  every  "bend,"  "bottom,"  "bayou,"  "point."  and  "planta- 
tion "  that  came  in  sight ;  often  for  no  other  object  than  to 
roll  out  a  barrel  of  flour,  or  a  keg  of  nails ;  sometimes  merely 
to  furnish  newspapers  to  a  wealthy  planter,  who  had  much 
cotton  to  send  to  market,  and  whom  it  was  therefore  desirable 
to  please. 

I  was  sitting  one  day  on  the  forward  gallery,  watching  a 
pair  of  ducks,  that  were  alternately  floating  on  the  river,  and 
flying  further  ahead  as  the  steamer  approached  them.  A 
man  standing  near  me  drew  a  long  barrelled  and  very  finely- 
finished  pistol  from  his  coat  pocket,  and,  resting  it  against  a 
stanchion,  took  aim  at  them.  They  were,  I  judged,.full  the 
boat's  own  length — not  less  than  two  hundred  feet — from  us, 
and  were  just  raising  their  vrings  to  fly,  when  he  fired.  One 


LOUISIANA.  353 

of  them  only  rose ;  the  other  flapped  roun^  and  round,  and 
when  within  ten  yards  of  the  boat,  dived.  The  bullet  had 
broken  its  wing.  So  remarkable  a  shot  excited,  of  course, 
not  a  little  admiration  and  conversation.  Half  a  dozen  other 
men  standing  near  at  once  drew  pistols  or  revolvers  from 
under  their  clothing,  and  several  were  fired  at  floating 
chips,  or  objects  on  the  shore.  I  saw  no  more  remark- 
able shooting,  however;  and  that  the  duck  should  have 
been  hit  at  such  a  distance,  was  generally  considered  a  piece 
of  luck.  A  man  who  had  been  "  in  the  Eangers  "  said  that 
all  his  company  could  put  a  ball  into  a  tree,  the  size  of  a 
man's  body,  at  sixty  paces,  at  every  shot,  with  Colt's  army 
revolver,  not  taking  steady  aim,  but  firing  at  the  jerk  of  the 
arm. 

This  pistol  episode  was  almost  the  only  entertainment  in 
which  the  passengers  engaged  themselves,  except  eating, 
drinking,  smoking,  conversation,  and  card-playing.  Gam- 
bling was  constantly  going  on,  day  and  night.  I  don't  think 
there  was  an  interruption  to  it  of  fifteen  minutes  in  three 
days.  The  conversation  was  almost  exclusively  confined  to 
the  topics  of  steamboats,  liquors,  cards,  black-land,  red-land, 
bottom-land,  timber-land,  warrants,  and  locations,  sugar,  cot- 
ton, corn,  and  negroes. 

After  the  first  night,  I  preferred  to  sleep  on  the  trunks  in 
the  social  hall,  rather  than  among  the  cots  in  the  crowded 
cabin,  and  several  others  did  the  same.  There  were,  in  fact, 
not  cots  enough  for  all  the  passengers  excluded  from  the 
state-rooms.  I  found  that  some,  and  I  presume  most  of  the 
passengers,  by  making  the  clerk  believe  that  they  would 
otherwise  take  the  Swamp  Fox,  had  obtained  their  passage  at 
considerably  less  price  than  I  had  paid. 

On  the  third  day,  just  after  the  dinner-bell  had  rung,  and 
most  of  the  passengers  had  gone  into  the  cabin,  I  was  sitting 

VOL.  i.  2  A 


354  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

alone  on  the  gallery,  reading  a  pamphlet,  when  a  well-dressed 
middle-aged  man  accosted  me. 

"  Is  that  the  book  they  call  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  you  are 
reading,  sir  ?" 

"No,  sir." 

"  I  did  not  know  but  it  was ;  I  see  that  there  are  two  or 
three  gentlemen  on  board  that  have  got  it.  I  suppose  I 
might  have  got  it  in  New  Orleans  :  I  wish  I  had.  Have  you 
ever  seen  it,  sir  ?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"I'm  told  it  shows  up  Slavery  in  very  high  colours." 

"  Yes,  sir,  it  shows  the  evils  of  Slavery  very  strongly." 

He  took  a  chair  near  me,  and  said  that,  if  it  represented 
extreme  cases  as  if  they  were  general,  it  was  not  fair. 

Perceiving  that  he  was  disposed  to  discuss  the  matter,  I 
said  that  I  was  a  Northern  man,  and  perhaps  not  well  able  to 
judge;  but  that  I  thought  that  a  certain  degree  of  cruelty 
was  necessary  to  make  slave-labour  generally  profitable,  and 
that  not  many  were  disposed  to  be  more  severe  than  they 
thought  necessary.  I  believed  there  was  little  wanton  cruelty. 
He  answered,  that  Northern  men  were  much  mistaken  in  sup- 
posing that  slaves  were  generally  ill-treated.  He  was  a  mer- 
chant, but  he  owned  a  plantation,  and  he  just  wished  I  could 
see  his  negroes.  "  Why,  sir,"  he  continued,  "  my  niggers' 
children  all  go  regularly  to  a  Sunday-school,  just  the  same  as 
my  own,  and  learn  verses,  and  catechism,  and  hymns.  Every 
one  of  my  grown-up  niggers  are  pious,  every  one  of  them, 
and  members  of  the  church.  I've  got  an  old  man  that  can 
pray well,  sir,  I  only  wish  I  had  as  good  a  gift  at  pray- 
ing !  I  wish  you  could  just  hear  him  pray.  There  are  cases 
in  which  niggers  are  badly  used  ;  but  they  are  not  common. 
There  are  brutes  everywhere.  You  have  men,  at  the  North, 
who  whip  their  wives — and  they  kill  them  sometimes." 


LOUISIANA.  355 

"  Certainly,  we  have,  sir ;  there  are  plenty  of  brutes  at  the 
North ;  but  our  law,  you  must  remember,  does  not  compel 
women  to  submit  themselves  to  their  power.  A  wife,  cruelly 
treated,  can  escape  from  her  husband,  and  can  compel  him  to 
give  her  subsistence,  and  to  cease  from  doing  her  harm.  A 
woman  could  defend  herself  against  her  husband's  cruelty, 
and  the  law  would  sustain  her." 

"  It  would  not  be  safe  to  receive  negroes'  testimony  against 
white  people;  they  would  be  always  plotting  against  their 
masters,  if  you  did." 

"  Wives  are  not  always  plotting  against  their  husbands." 

"  Husband  and  wife  is  a  very  different  thing  from  master 
and  slave." 

"  Your  remark,  that  a  bad  man  might  whip  his  wife,  sug- 
gested an  analogy,  sir." 

"  If  the  law  was  to  forbid  whipping  altogether,  the  autho- 
rity of  the  master  would  be  at  an  end." 

"  And  if  you  allow  bad  men  to  own  slaves,  and  allow  them 
to  whip  them,  and  deny  the  slave  the  privilege  of  resisting 
cruelty,  do  you  not  show  that  you  think  it  is  necessary  to 
permit  cruelty,  in  order  to  sustain  the  authority  of  masters, 
in  general,  over  their  slaves  ?  That  is,  you  establish  cruelty 
as  a  necessity  of  Slavery — do  you  not  ?" 

"  No  more  than  of  marriage,  because  men  may  whip  their 
wives  cruelly." 

"  Excuse  me,  sir ;  the  law  does  all  it  can,  to  prevent  such 
cruelty  between  husband  and  wife  ;  between  master  and  slave 
it  does  not,  because  it  cannot,  without  weakening  the  neces- 
sary authority  of  the  master— that  is,  without  destroying 
Slavery.  It  is,  therefore,  a  fair  argument  against  Slavery,  to 
show  how  cruelly  this  necessity,  of  sustaining  the  authority  of 
cruel  and  passionate  men  over  their  slaves,  sometimes  operates." 

He  asked  what  it  was  Uncle  Tom  "  tried  to  make  out." 

2  A  2 


35(5  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

I  narrated  the  Bed  Elver  episode,  and  asked  if  such  things 
could  not  possibly  occur. 

"  Yes,"  replied  he,  "  but  very  rarely.  I  don't  know  a 
man,  in  my  parish,  that  could  do  such  a  thing.  There  are 

two  men,  though,  in ,  bad  enough  to  do  it,  I  believe  ; 

but  it  isn't  a  likely  story,  at  ah1.  In  the  first  place,  no  coloured 
woman  would  be  likely  to  offer  any  resistance,  if  a  white  man 
should  want  to  seduce  her." 

After  further  conversation,  he  said,  that  a  planter  had  been 
tried  for  injuring  one  of  his  negroes,  at  the  court  in  his  parish, 
the  preceding  summer.  He  had  had  a  favourite,  among  his 
girls,  and  suspecting  that  she  was  unduly  kind  to  one  of  his 
men,  in  an  anger  of  jealousy  he  mutilated  him.  There  was 
not  sufficient  testimony  to  convict  him ;  "  but,"  he  said, 
"  everybody  believes  he  was  guilty,  and  ought  to  have  been 
punished.  Nobody  thinks  there  was  any  good  reason  for  his 
being  jealous  of  the  boy." 

I  remarked  that  this  story  corroborated  "  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin ;"  it  showed  that  it  was  all  possible. 

"Ah!"  he  answered,  "but  then  nobody  would  have  any 
respect  for  a  man  that  treated  his  niggers  cruelly." 

I  wondered,  as  I  went  into  dinner,  and  glanced  at  the  long 
rows  of  surly  faces,  how  many  men  there  were  there  whose 
passions  would  be  much  restrained  by  the  fear  of  losing  the 
respect  of  their  neighbours.* 

My  original  purpose  had  been  to  go  high  up  Red  River  at 
this  time,  but  the  long  delay  in  the  boat's  leaving  New  Orleans, 
and  her  slow  passage,  obliged  me  to  change  my  plans.  The 

*  John  Randolph,  of  Roanoke,  himself  a  slaveholder,  once  said,  on  the  floor 
of  Congress  (touching  the  internal  slave-trade)  :  "What  are  the  tiophies  of  this 
infernal  traffic?  The  handcuff,  the  manacles,  the  blood-stained  cowhide.  }\7tat 
man  in  worse  received  in  society  for  being  a  hard  master  ?  Who  denies  the  hand 
of  sister  or  daughter  to  such  monsters  1" 


LOUISIANA.  357 

following  year,  1  returned,  in  company  with  my  brother,  as 
narrated  in  "  The  Texas  Journey."  Some  portion  of  what 
follows  is  taken  from  that  volume. 

At  a  place  called  Alexandria,  our  progress  was  arrested  by 
falls  in  the  river  which  cannot  be  passed  by  boats  at  low  stages 
of  the  water.  The  village  is  every  bit  a  Southern  one — all 
the  houses  being  one  story  in  height,  and  having  an  open 
verandah  before  them,  like  the  English  towns  in  the  West 
Indies.  It  contains,  usually,  about  1,000  inhabitants,  but 
this  summer  had  been  entirely  depopulated  by  the  yellow 
fever.  Of  300  who  remained,  120,  we  were  told,  died.  Most 
of  the  runaway  citizens  had  returned,  when  we  passed,  though 
the  last  case  of  fever  was  still  in  uncertain  progress. 

It  has  apparently  not  the  best  reputation  for  morality. 
At  Nachitoches,  the  next  village  above  on  the  river,  a  couple 
of  men  were  waiting  for  their  breakfast  at  the  inn,  when  one, 
who  looked  and  spoke  more  like  a  NewEnglander  than  a 
Southerner,  said  to  the  other,  whom  I  presumed  to  be  an 
Alexandrian — -possibly  Elder  Slocum  himself: — 

"  I  had  a  high  old  dream,  last  night" 

"  What  was  it  ?" 

"  Dreamt  I  was  in  hell." 

"  Bough  country  ?" 

"  Boggy — sulphur  bogs.  By  and  by  I  cum  to  a  great  pair 
of  doors.  Something  kinder  drew  me  right  to  'em,  and  I  had  to 
open  'em,  and  go  in.  As  soon  as  I  got  in,  the  doors  slammed 
to,  behind  me,  and  there  I  see  old  boss  devil  lying  asleep,  on 
a  red-hot  sofy.  He  woke  up,  and  rubbed  his  eyes,  and  when 
he  see  me,  he  says,  '  Halloo !  that  you  ?'  '  Yes,  sir,'  says  I. 
'  Where'd  you  come  from  ?'  says  he.  '  From  Alexandria,  sir,' 
says  I.  '  Thought  so,'  says  he,  and  he  took  down  a  big  book, 
and  wrote  something  in  to't  with  a  red-hot  spike.  '  Well,  sir, 
what's  going  on  now  in  Alexandria  ?'  says  he.  '  Having  a 


358 


COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 


"  protracted  meeting  "  there,  sir,'  says  I.  '  Look  here,  my 
friend,'  says  he,  '  you  may  stop  lyin',  now  you've  got  here.' 
'I  aint  lyin',  sir,'  says  I.  'Oh!'  says  he,  'I  beg  your 
pardon;  I  thought  it  was  Alexandria  on  Eed  Kiver,  you 
meant.'  '  So  it  was,'  says  I,  '  and  they  are  having  a  pro- 
tracted meeting  there,  sure  as  you're  alive.'  '  Hell  they  are  !' 
says  he,  jurnpin'  right  up  ;  '  boy,  bring  my  boots  !'  A  little 
black  devil  fetched  him  a  pair  of  hot  brass  boots,  and  he  began 
to  draw  'em  on.  '  Whose  doin'  is  that  ?'  says  he.  '  Elder 
Slocum's,  sir,'  says  I.  '  Elder  Slocum's !  Why  in  hell 
couldn't  you  have  said  so,  before  ?'  says  he.  '  Here,  boy,  take 
away  these  boots ;'  and  he  kicked  'em  off,  and  laid  down  again." 

French  blood  rather  predominates  in  the  population  in  the 
vicinity  of  Nachitoches,  but  there  is  also  a  considerable  amount 
of  the  Spanish  and  Indian  mongrel  breed.  These  are  often 
handsome  people,  but  vagabonds,  almost  to  a  man.  Scarcely 
any  of  them  have  any  regular  occupation,  unless  it  be  that  of 
herding  cattle ;  but  they  raise  a  little  maize,  and  fish  a  little, 
and  hunt  a  little,  and  smoke  and  lounge  a  great  deal,  and  are 
very  regular  in  their  attendance  on  divine  worship,  at  the 
cathedral. 

In  the  public  bar-room  I  heard  a  person,  who  I  suppose 
would  claim  the  appellation  of  a  gentleman,  narrating  how 
he  had  overreached  a  political  opponent,  in  securing  the 
"  Spanish  vote  "  at  an  election,  and  it  appeared  from  the  con- 
versation that  it  was  considered  entirely,  and  as  a  matter  of 
course,  purchasable  by  the  highest  bidder.  A  man  who 
would  purchase  votes  at  the  North,  would,  at  least,  be  careful 
not  to  mention  it  so  publicly. 

We  spent  several  days  in  Nachitoches,  purchasing  horses 
and  completing  the  preparations  for  our  vagrant  life  in  Texas. 

One  mild  day  of  our  stay  we  made  a  trip  of  some  ten  or 
fifteen  miles  out  and  back,  at  the  invitation  of  a  planter,  whose 


KOUTE   ACROSS   EASTERN   TEXAS.  359 

acquaintance  we  had  made  at  the  hotel.  We  started  in  good 
season,  but  were  not  long  in  losing  our  way  and  getting  upon 
obscure  roads  through  the  woods.  The  planter's  residence  we 
did  not  find,  but  one  day's  experience  is  worth  a  note. 

We  rode  on  from  ten  o'clock  till  three,  without  seeing  a 
house,  except  a  deserted  cabin,  or  meeting  a  human  being. 
We  then  came  upon  a  ferry  across  a  small  stream  or 
"  bayou,"  near  which  was  a  collection  of  cabins.  We  asked 
the  old  negro  who  tended  the  ferry  if  we  could  get  something 
to  eat  anywhere  in  the  neighbourhood.  He  replied  that  his 
master  sometimes  took  in  travellers,  and  we  had  better  call 
and  try  if  the  mistress  wouldn't  let  us  have  some  dinner. 

The  house  was  a  small  square  log  cabin,  with  a  broad  open 
shed  or  piazza  in  front,  and  a  chimney,  made  of  sticks  and 
mud,  leaning  against  one  end.  A  smaller  detached  cabin, 
twenty  feet  in  the  rear,  was  used  for  a  kitchen.  A  cistern 
under  a  roof,  and  collecting  water  from  three  roofs,  stood  be- 
tween. The  water  from  the  bayou  was  not  fit  to  drink,  nor 
is  the  water  of  the  Bed  Kiver,  or  of  any  springs  in  this  region. 
The  people  depend  entirely  on  cisterns  for  drinking  water. 
It  is  very  little  white  folks  need,  however — milk,  whisky,  and, 
with  the  better  class,  Bordeaux  wine,  being  the  more  common 
beverages. 

About  the  house  was  a  large  yard,  in  which  were  two  or 
three  China  trees,  and  two  fine  Cherokee  roses ;  half  a  dozen 
hounds ;  several  negro  babies ;  turkeys  and  chickens,  and  a 
pet  sow,  teaching  a  fine  litter  of  pigs  how  to  root  and  wallow. 
Three  hundred  yards  from  the  house  was  a  gin-house  and 
stable,  and  in  the  interval  between  were  two  rows  of  comfort- 
able negro  cabins.  Between  the  house  and  the  cabins  was  a 
large  post,  on  which  was  a  bell  to  call  the  negroes.  A  rack 
for  fastening  horses  stood  near  it.  On  the  bell-post  and  on 
Gp.eh  of  the  rack-posts  were  nailed  the  antlers  of  a  buck,  as 


360  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

well  as  on  a  large  oak-tree  near  by.  On  the  logs  of  the 
kitchen  a  fresh  deer-skin  was  drying.  On  the  railing  of  the 
piazza  lay  a  saddle.  The  house  had  but  one  door  and  no 
window,  nor  was  there  a  pane  of  glass  on  the  plantation. 

Entering  the  house,  we  found  it  to  contain  but  a  single 
room,  about  twenty  feet  by  sixteen.  Of  this  space  one  quarter 
was  occupied  by  a  bed — a  great  four-poster,  with  the  curtains 
open,  made  up  in  the  French  style,  with  a  strong  furniture- 
calico  day-coverlid.  A  smaller  camp  bed  stood  beside  it. 
These  two  articles  of  furniture  nearly  filled  the  house  on  one 
side  the  door.  At  the  other  end  was  a  great  log  fire-place, 
with  a  fine  fire.  The  outer  door  was  left  constantly  open  to 
admit  the  light.  On  one  side  the  fire,  next  the  door,  was  a 
table ;  a  kind  of  dresser,  with  crockery,  and  a  bureau  stood 
on  the  other  side,  and  there  were  two  deer-skin  seated  chairs 
and  one  (Connecticut  made)  rocking  chair. 

A  bold-faced,  but  otherwise  good-enough-looking  woman  of 
a  youngish  middle  age,  was  ironing  a  shirt  on  the  table.  We 
stated  our  circumstances,  and  asked  if  we  could  get  some  din- 
ner from  her.  She  reckoned  we  could,  she  said,  if  we'd  wait 
till  she  was  done  ironing.  So  we  waited,  taking  seats  by  the 
fire,  and  examining  the  literature  and  knick-knacks  on  the 
mantel-piece.  These  consisted  of  three  Nachitoches  Chroni- 
cles, a  Patent  Office  Agricultural  Keport,  "  Christie's  Galvanic 
Almanac,"  a  Bible,  "  The  Pirate  of  the  Gulf,"  a  powder-horn, 
the  sheath  of  a  bowie-knife,  a  whip-lash,  and  a  tobacco-pipe. 

Three  of  the  hounds,  a  negro  child,  and  a  white  child,  had 
followed  us  to  the  door  of  the  cabin,  three  chickens  had  entered 
before  us,  a  cat  and  kittens  were  Asleep  in  the  corner  of  the 
fire-place.  By  the  time  we  had  finished  reading  the  queer 
advertisements  in  French  of  runaway  negroes  in  the  Chronicle 
two  of  the  hounds  and  the  black  child  had  retired,  and  a  tan- 
coloured  hound,  very  lean,  and  badly  crippled  in  one  leg,  had 


BOUTE  ACROSS  EASTERN  TEXAS.  361 

entered  and  stood  asking  permission  with  his  tail  to  come  to 
the  fire-place.  The  white  child,  a  frowzy  girl  of  ten,  came 
toward  us.  I  turned  and  asked  her  name.  She  knitted  her 
brows,  but  made  no  verbal  reply.  I  turned  my  chair  towards 
her,  and  asked  her  to  come  to  me.  She  hung  her  heau.  for 
an  instant,  then  turned,  ran  to  the  hound  and  struck  him  a 
hard  blow  in  the  chops.  The  hound  quailed.  She  struck 
him  again,  and  he  turned  half  around  ;  then  she  began  with 
her  feet,  and  kicked  him  out,  taking  herself  after  him. 

At  length  the  woman  finished  her  ironing,  and  went  to  the 
kitchen,  whence  quickly  returning,  she  placed  upon  the  table 
a  plate  of  cold,  salt,  fat  pork ;  a  cup  of  what  to  both  eye  and 
tongue  seemed  lard,  but  which  she  termed  butter ;  a  plate  of 
very  stale,  dry,  flaky,  micaceous  corn-bread  ;  a  jug  of  molasses, 
and  a  pitcher  of  milk. 

"  Well,  now  it's  ready,  if  you'll  eat  it,"  she  said,  turning  to 
us.  "  Best  we've  got.  Sit  up.  Take  some  pone  ;"  and  she 
sat  down  in  the  rocker  at  one  end  of  the  table.  We  took  seats 
at  the  other  end. 

"  Jupiter !  what's  the  matter  with  this  child  ?"  A  little 
white  child  that  had  crawled  up  into  the  gallery,  and  now  to 
my  side — flushed  face,  and  wheezing  like  a  high-pressure 
steamboat. 

"  Got  the  croup,  I  reckon,"  answered  the  woman.  "  Take 
some  'lasses." 

The  child  crawled  into  the  room.  With  the  aid  of  a  hand 
it  stood  up  and  walked  round  to  its  mother. 

"  How  long  has  it  been  going  on  that  way  ?"  asked  we. 

"Well,  it's  been  going  on  some  days,  now,  and  keeps 
getting  worse.  'Twas  right  bad  last  night,  in  the  night. 
Reckoned  I  should  lose  it,  one  spell.  Take  some  butter." 

We  were  quite  faint  with  hunger  when  we  rode  up,  but 
didn't  eat  much  of  the  corn-cake  and  pork.  The  woman  and 


362  COTTON   AND    8LAVEEY. 

the  high-pressure  child  sat  still  and  watched  us,  and  we  sat 
still  and  did  our  best,  making  much  of  the  milk. 

"  Have  you  had  a  physician  to  see  that  child  ?"  asked  my 
brother,  drawing  back  his  chair. 

She  had  not. 

"  Will  you  come  to  me,  my  dear  ?" 

The  child  came  to  him,  he  felt  its  pulse  and  patted  its 
hot  forehead,  looked  down  its  throat,  and  leaned  his  ear  on 
its  chest. 

"  Are  you  a  doctor,  sir  ?" 

"Yes,  madam." 

"  Got  some  fever,  hasn't  it  ?" 

"Yes." 

"  Not  nigh  so  much  as't  had  kst  night." 

"  Have  you  done  anything  for  it  ?" 

"  Well,  thar  was  a  gentleman  here ;  he  told  me  sweet  ile 
and  sugar  would  be  good  ibr't,  and  I  gave  it  a  good  deal  of 
that :  made  it  sick,  it  did.  I  thought,  perhaps,  that  would 
do  it  good." 

"  Yes.  You  have  had  something  like  this  in  your  family 
before,  haven't  you  ?  You  don't  seem  much  alarmed." 

"  Oh  yes,  sir ;  that  ar  one  (pointing  to  the  frowzy  girl, 
whose  name  was  Angelina)  had  it  two  or  three  times — onst 
most  as  bad  as  this.  All  my  children  have  had  it.  Is  she 
bad,  doctor?" 

"  Yes.     I  should  say  this  was  a  very  serious  thing." 

"  Have  you  any  medicine  in  the  house  ?"  he  asked,  after 
the  woman  had  returned  from  a  journey  to  the  kitchen.  She 
opened  a  drawer  of  the  bureau,  half  full  of  patent  medicines 
and  some  common  drugs.  "  There's  a  whole  heap  o'  truck 
in  thar.  I  don't  know  what  it  all  is.  Whatever  you  wan' 
just  help  yourself.  I  can't  read  writin' ;  you  must  pick  ii 
out." 


ROUTE  ACROSS  EASTEBN  TEXAS.  363 

Such  as  were  available  were  taken  out  and  given  to  the 
mother,  with  directions  about  administering  them,  which  she 
promised  to  obey.  "  But  the  first  and  most  important  thing 
for  you  to  do  is  to  shut  the  door,  and  make  up  the  fire,  and 
put  the  child  to  bed,  and  try  to  keep  this  wind  off  her." 

"  Lord  !  sir,  you  can't  keep  her  in  bed— she's  too  wild." 

"  Well,  you  must  put  some  more  clothes  on  her.  Wrap 
her  up,  and  try  to  keep  her  warm.  The  very  best  thing  you 
can  do  for  her  is  to  give  her  a  warm  bath.  Have  you  not  got 
a  washing  tub  ?" 

"Oh!  yes,  sir,  I  can  do  that.  She'll  go  to  bed  pretty 
early ;  she's  used  to  going  'tween  sundown  and  dark." 

"  Well,  give  her  the  warm  bath,  then,  and  if  she  gets  worse 
send  for  a  physician  immediately.  You  must  be  very  careful 
of  her,  madam." 

We  walked  to  the  stable,  and  as  the  horses  had  not  finished 
eating  their  corn,  I  lounged  about  the  quarters,  and  talked 
with  the  negro. 

There  was  not  a  single  soul  in  the  quarters  or  in  sight  of 
the  house  except  ourselves,  the  woman  and  her  children,  and 
the  old  negro.  The  negro  women  must  have  taken  their 
sucklings  with  them,  if  they  had  any,  to  the  field  where  they 
were  at  work. 

The  old  man  said  they  had  "ten  or  eleven  field-hands, 
such  as  they  was,"  and  his  master  would  sell  sixty  to  seventy 
bags  of  cotton :  besides  which  they  made  all  the  corn  and 
pork  they  wanted,  and  something  over,  and  raised  some 
cattle. 

We  found  our  way  back  to  the  town  only  late  in  the  even- 
ing. We  had  ridden  most  of  the  day  over  heavily-timbered, 
nearly  flat,  rich  bottom  land.  It  is  of  very  great  fertility ; 
but,  being  subject  to  overflow,  is  not  very  attractive,  in  spite 
of  its  proximity  to  a  market. 


364  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

But  it  must  be  remembered  that  they  were  having  the  first 
use  of  a  very  fine  alluvial  soil,  and  were  subject  to  floods  and 
fevers.  The  yellow  fever  or  cholera  another  year  might  kill 
half  their  negroes,  or  a  flood  of  the  Eed  Eiver  (such  as 
occurred  August,  1849,  and  October,  1851)  destroy  their 
whole  crop,  and  so  use  up  several  years'  profits. 

A  slate  hung  in  the  piazza,  with  the  names  of  all  the 
cotton-pickers,  and  the  quantity  picked  the  last  picking  day 
by  each,  thus :  Gorge,  152 ;  David,  130 ;  PoUy,  98 ;  Hanna, 
96  ;  Little  Gorge,  52,  etc.  The  whole  number  of  hands  noted 
was  fourteen.  Probably  there  were  over  twenty  slaves,  big 
and  little,  on  the  plantation. 

When  our  horses  were  ready,  we  paid  the  negro  for  taking 
care  of  them,  and  I  went  in  and  asked  the  woman  what  I 
might  pay  her. 

"  What !"  she  asked,  looking  in  my  face  as  if  angry. 

I  feared  she  was  offended  by  my  offering  money  for  her 
hospitality,  and  put  the  question  again  as  delicately  as  I 
could.  She  continued  her  sullen  gaze  at  me  for  a  moment, 
and  then  answered  as  if  the  words  had  been  bullied  out  of 
her  by  a  Tombs  lawyer — 

"Dollar,  I  reckon." 

"  What !"  thought  I,  but  handed  her  the  silver. 

Biding  out  at  the  bars  let  down  for  us  by  the  old  negro,  we 
wondered  if  the  child  would  be  li ving  twenty-four  hours  later, 
and  if  it  survived,  what  its  moral  chances  were.  Poor, 
we  thought.  Five  miles  from  a  neighbour ;  ten,  probably, 
from  a  Louisiana*  school ;  hound-pups  and  negroes  for 
playmates. 

*  The  State  Superintendent  latelj  recommended  that  two  out  of  three  of  the 
Directors  of  Common  Schools  in  Louisiana  should  be  required  to  know  how  to  read 
and  write ;  and  mentioned  that  in  one  parish,  instead  of  the  signature  the  mark  of 
twelve  different  directors  was  affixed  to  a  teacher's  certificate. 


ROUTE  ACKOSS  EASTERN  TEXAS.  365 

On  the  Emigrant  Road  into  Texas. — Five  minutes'  ride 
took  us  deep  into  the  pines.  Nachitoches,  and  with  it  all  the 
tumult  and  bother  of  social  civilization,  had  disappeared. 
Under  the  pines  and  beyond  them  was  a  new,  calm,  free  life, 
upon  which  we  entered  with  a  glow  of  enthusiasm,  which,  how- 
ever, hardly  sufficed  to  light  up  a  whole  day  of  pine  shadows, 
and  many  times  .afterwards  glimmered  very  dull  over  days 
on  days  of  cold  corn-bread  and  cheerless  winter  prairies. 

For  two  days,  we  rode  through  these  pines  over  a  sandy 
surface,  having  little  rise  and  fall,  watered  here  and  there  by 
small  creeks  and  ponds,  within  reach  of  whose  overflow, 
present  or  past,  stand  deciduous  trees,  such  as,  principally, 
oaks  and  cotton-woods,  in  a  firmer  and  richer  soil.  Wherever 
the  road  crosses  or  approaches  these  spots,  there  is  or  has 
been, usually,  a  plantation. 

The  road  could  hardly  be  called  a  road.  It  was  only  a  way 
where  people  had  passed  along  before.  Each  man  had  taken 
such  a  path  as  suited  him,  turning  aside  to  avoid,  on  high 
ground,  the  sand  ;  on  low  ground,  the  mud.  We  chose,  gene- 
rally, the  untrodden  elastic  pavement  of  pine  leaves,  at  a  little 
distance  from  the  main  track. 

We  overtook,  several  times  in  the  course  of  each  day,  the 
slow  emigrant  trains,  for  which  this  road,  though  less  fre- 
quented than  years  ago,  is  still  a  chief  thoroughfare.  Inex- 
orable destiny  "it  seems  that  drags  or  drives  on,  always  West- 
ward, these  toilworn  people.  Several  families  were  frequently 
moving  together,  coming  from  the  same  district,  or  chance 
met  and  joined,  for  company,  on  the  long  road  from  Alabama, 
Georgia,  or  the  Carolinas.  Before  you  come  upon  them  you 
hear  ringing  through  the  woods,  the  fierce  cries  and  blows 
with'  which  they  urge  on  their  jaded  cattle.  Then  the  strag- 
glers appeal-,  lean  dogs  or  fainting  negroes,  ragged  and  spirit, 
lews.  An  old  granny,  hauling  on,  by  the  hand,  a  weak  boy— 


3(56  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

too  old  to  ride  and  too  young  to  keep  up.  An  old  man, 
heavily  loaded,  with  a  rifle.  Then  the  white  covers  of  the 
waggons,  jerking  up  and  down  as  they  mount  over  a  root  or 
plunge  into  a  rut,  disappearing,  one  after  another,  where  the 
road  descends.  Then  the  active  and  cheery  prime  negroes, 
not  yet  exhausted,  with  a  joke  and  a  suggestion  about  tobacco. 
Then  the  black  pickininnies,  staring,  in  a  confused  heap,  out 
at  the  back  of  the  waggon,  more  and  more  of  their  eyes  to  be 
made  out  among  the  table  legs  and  bedding,  as  you  get  near  ; 
behind  them,  further  in,  the  old  people  and  young  mothers, 
whose  turn  it  is  to  ride.  As  you  get  by,  the  white  mother 
and  babies,  and  the  tall,  frequently  ill-humoured  master,  on 
horseback,  or  walking  with  his  gun,  urging  up  the  black 
driver  and  his  oxen.  As  a  scout  ahead,  is  a  brother,  or  an  in- 
telligent slave,  with  the  best  gun,  on  the  look-out  for  a  deer 
or  a  turkey.  We  passed  in  the  day  perhaps  one  hundred  per- 
sons attached  to  these  trains,  probably  an  unusual  number ; 
but  the  immigration  this  year  had  been  retarded  and  con- 
densed by  the  fear  of  yellow  fever,  the  last  case  of  which,  at 
Nachitoches,  had  indeed  begun  only  the  night  before  our 
arrival.  Our  chances  of  danger  were  considered  small,  how- 
ever, as  the  hard  frosts  had  already  come.  One  of  these  trains 
was  made  up  of  three  large  waggons,  loaded  with  furniture, 
babies,  and  invalids,  two  or  three  light  waggons,  and  a  gang 
of  twenty  able  field-hands.  They  travel  ten  or  fifteen  miles  a 
day,  stopping  wherever  night  overtakes  them.  The  masters 
are  plainly  dressed,  often  in  home-spun,  keeping  their  eyes 
about  them,  noticing  the  soil,  sometimes  making  a  remark  on 
the  crops  by  the  roadside ;  but  generally  dogged,  surly,  and 
silent.  The  women  are  silent  too,  freqiiently  walking,  to  re- 
lieve the  teams ;  and  weary,  haggard,  mud  be-draggled,  for- 
lorn, and  disconsolate,  yet  hopeful  and  careful.  The  negroes, 
mud-incrusted,  wrapped  in  old  blankets  or  gunny-bigs, 


KOUTE  ACROSS  EASTERN  TEXAS.  367 

suffering  from  cold,  plod  on,  aimless,  hopeless,  thoughtless, 
more  indifferent,  apparently,  than  the  oxen,  to  all  about 
them. 

We  met,  in  course  of  the  day,  numerous  cotton  waggons, 
two  or  three  sometimes  together,  drawn  by  three  or  four  pairs 
of  mules  or  oxen,  going  slowly  on  toward  Nachitoches  or 
Grand  Ecore,  each  managed  by  its  negro-driver.  The  load 
is  commonly  five  bales  (of  400  Ibs.  each),  and  the  cotton 
comes  in  this  tedious  way,  over  execrable  roads,  distances  of 
100  and  even  150  miles.  It  is  usually  hauled  from  the 
eastern  tier  of  Texan  counties  to  the  Sabine ;  but  this  year 
there  had  been  no  rise  of  water  in  the  rivers,  and  from  all  this 
region  it  must  be  carried  to  Red  River.  The  distance  from 
the  Sabine  is  here  about  fifty  miles,  and  the  cost  of  this  trans- 
portation about  one  cent  a  pound ;  the  freight  from  Grand 
Ecore  to  New  Orleans  from  one  to  one  and  a  quarter  cents. 
If  hauled  150  miles  in  this  way,  as  we  were  told,  the  profit 
remaining,  after  paying  the  charges  of  transportation  and 
commission,  all  amounting  to  about  five  cents,  must  be  ex- 
ceedingly small  in  ordinary  years. 

At  night  we  met  three  or  four  of  these  teams  half-mired  in 
a  swamp,  distant  some  quarter  of  a  mile  one  from  another, 
and  cheering  themselves  in  the  dark  with  prolonged  and 
musical  "  Yohoi's,"  sent  ringing  through  the  woods.  We  got 
through  this  with  considerable  perplexity  ourselves,  and  were 
very  glad  to  see  the  light  of  the  cabin  where  we  had  been 
recommended  to  stop. 

This  was  "  Mrs.  Stokers',"  about  half  way  to  the  Sabine. 
We  were  received  cordially,  every  house  here  expecting  to  do 
inn-duty,  but  were  allowed  to  strip  and  take  care  of  our  own 
horses,  the  people  by  no  means  expecting  to  do  landlord's 
duty,  but  taking  guests  on  sufferance.  The  house  was  a 
double  log  cabin— two  log  erections,  that  is,  joined  by  one 


368  COTTON    AND    SLAVER'S. 

long  roof,  leaving  an  open  space  between.  A  gallery,  extend- 
ing across  the  whole  front,  serves  for  a  pleasant  sitting-room 
in  summer,  and  for  a  toilet-room  at  all  seasons.  A  bright 
fire  was  very  welcome.  Supper,  consisting  of  pork,  fresh  and 
salt,  cold  corn-bread,  and  boiled  sweet  potatoes,  was  served 
in  a  little  lean-to  behind  the  house.  After  disposing  of  this 
we  were  shown  to  our  room,  the  other  cabin,  where  we  whiled 
away  our  evening,  studying,  by  the  light  of  the  great  fire,  a 
book  of  bear  stories,  and  conversing  with  the  young  man  of 
the  family,  and  a  third  guest.  The  room  was  open*  to  the 
rafters,  and  had  been  built  up  only  as  high  as  the  top  of  the 
door  upon  the  gallery  side,  leaving  a  huge  open  triangle  to 
the  roof,  through  which  the  wind  rushed  at  us  with  a  fierce 
swoop,  both  while  we  were  sitting  at  the  fire  and  after  we 
retreated  to  bed.  Owing  to  this  we  slept  little,  and  having 
had  a  salt  supper,  lay  very  thirsty  upon  the  deep  feather  bed. 
About  four  o'clock  an  old  negro  came  in  to  light  the  fire. 
Asking  him  for  water,  we  heard  him  breaking  the  ice  for  it 
outside.  When  we  washed  in  the  piazza  the  water  was  thick 
with  frost,  crusty,  and  half  inclined  not  to  be  used  as  a  fluid 
at  all. 

After  a  breakfast,  similar  in  all  respects  to  the  supper,  we 
saddled  and  rode  on  again.  The  horses  had  had  a  dozen  ears 
of  corn,  night  and  morning,  with  an  allowance  of  fodder 
(maize  leaves) .  For  this  the  charge  was  $125  each  person. 
This  is  a  fair  sample  of  roadside  stopping-places  in  Western 
Louisiana  and  Texas.  The  meals  are  absolutely  invariable, 
save  that  fresh  pork  and  sweet  potatoes  are  frequently  wanting. 
There  is  always,  too,  the  black  decoction  of  the  South  called 
coffee,  than  which  it  is  often  difficult  to  imagine  any  beverage 
more  revolting.  The  bread  is  made  of  corn-meal,  stirred  with 
water  and  salt,  and  baked  in  a  kettle  covered  with  coals. 
The  corn  for  breakfast  is  frequently  unhusked  at  sunrise.  A 


ROUTE  ACROSS  EASTERN  TEXAS.  369 

negro,  whose  business  it  is,  shells  and  grinds  it  in  a  hand-- 
mill for  the  cook.  Should  there  be  any  of  the  loaf  left  after 
breakfast,  it  is  given  to  the  traveller,  if  he  wish  it,  with  a  bit 
of  pork,  for  a  noon-"  snack,"  with  no  further  charge.  He  is 
conscious^  though,  in  that  case,  that  he  is  robbing  the  hounds, 
always  eagerly  waiting,  and  should  none  remain,  none  can  be 
had  without  a  new  resort  to  the  crib.  Wheat  bread,  if  I  am 
not  mistaken,  we  met  with  but  twice,  out  of  Austin,  in  our 
whole  journey  across  the  State. 

The  country  was  very  similar  to  that  passed  over  the  day 
before,  with  perhaps  rather  more  of  the  cultivable  loam.  A 
good  part  of  the  land  had,  at  some  time,  been  cleared,  but  much 
was  already  turned  over  to  the  "  old-field  pines,"  some  of  them 
even  fifteen  years  or  more.  In  fact,  a  larger  area  had  been  aban- 
doned, we  thought,  than  remained  under  cultivation.  With 
the  land,  many  cabins  have,  of  course,  also  been  deserted,  giving 
the  road  a  desolate  air.  If  you  ask,  where  are  the  people 
that  once  occupied  these,  the  universal  reply  is,  "  Gone  to 
Texas." 

The  plantations  occur,  perhaps,  at  an  average  distance  of 
three  or  four  miles.  Most  of  the  remaining  inhabitants  live 
chiefly,  to  appearances,  by  fleecing  emigrants.  Every  shanty 
sells  spirits,  and  takes  in  travellers.  We  passed  through  but 
one  village,  which  consisted  of  six  dwellings.  The  families 
obtained  their  livelihood  by  the  following  occiipations :  one  by 
shoeing  the  horses  of  emigrants ;  one  by  repairing  the  wheels 
of  their  waggons;  one  by  selling  them  groceries.  Tho 
smallest  cabin  contained  a  physician.  It  was  not  larger  than 
a  good-sized  medicine  chest,  but  had  the  biggest  sign.  The 
others  advertised  "  corn  and  fodder."  The  prices  charged 
for  any  article  sold,  or  service  performed,  were  enormous  ;  full 
one  hundred  per  cent,  over  those  of  New  Orleans. 

We  met  Spaniards  once  or  twice  on  the  road,  and  the  popu- 

YOL.  I.  2   B 


370  COTTON    AND   SLAVERY. 

lation  of  this  district  is  thought  to  be  one  half  of  Spanish 
origin.  They  have  no  houses  on  the  road,  however,  but  live 
in  little  hamlets  in  the  forest,  or  in  cabins  contiguous  to  each 
other,  about  a  pond.  They  make  no  progress  in  acquiring 
capital  of  their  own,  but  engage  in  hunting  and  fisln'ng,  or  in 
herding  cattle  for  larger  proprietors  of  the  land.  For  this 
business  they  seem  to  have  an  hereditary  adaptation,  far  ex- 
celling negroes  of  equal  experience. 

The  number  of  cattle  raised  here  is  now  comparatively 
small,  most  of  the  old  herd  proprietors  having  moved  on  to 
pastures  new  in  Western  Texas.  The  cane,  which  is  a  natural 
growth  of  most  good  soils  at  the  South,  is  killed  if  closely  fed 
upon.  The  blue-joint  grass  (not  the  blue-grass  of  Kentucky) 
takes  its  place,  and  is  also  indigenous  upon  a  poorer  class  of 
soils  in  this  region.  This  is  also  good  food  for  cattle,  but  is 
killed  in  turn  if  closely  pastured.  The  ground  then  becomes 
bare  or  covered  with  shrubs,  and  the  "  range  "  is  destroyed. 
The  better  class  of  soils  here  bear  tolerable  crops  of  cotton, 
but  are  by  no  means  of  value  equal  to  the  Eed  River  bottoms 
or  the  new  soils  of  any  part  of  Texas.'  The  country  is,  there- 
fore, here  in  similar  condition  to  that  of  the  Eastern  Slave 
States.  The  improvements  which  the  inhabitants  have  suc- 
ceeded in  making  in  the  way  of  clearing  the  forest,  fencing 
and  tilling  the  land,  building  dwellings,  bams,  and  machinery, 
making  roads  and  bridges,  and  introducing  the  institutions  of 
civilization,  not  compensating  in  value  the  deterioration  in 
the  productiveness  of  the  soil.  The  exhausted  land  reverts  to 
wilderness. 

Eastern  Texas. — Shortly  after  noon  rain  began  to  fall  from 
the  chilly  clouds  that  had  been  threatening  us,  and  sleet  and 
snow  were  soon  driving  in  our  faces.  Our  animals  were  dis- 
posed to  flinch,  but  we  were  disposed  to  sleep  in  Texas,  nnd 


ROUTJ3   ACROSS   EASTERN   TEXAS.  371 

pushed  on  across  the  Sabine.  We  found  use  for  all  our  wraps, 
and  Avhen  we  reached  the  ferry-house  our  Mackintoshes  were 
like  a  coat  of  mail  with  the  stiff  ice,  and  trees  and  fields  were 
covered.  In  the  broad  river  bottom  we  noticed  many  aquatic 
birds,  and  the  browsing  line  under  the  dense  mass  of  trees 
was  almost  as  clean  cut  as  that  of  Bushy  Park.  The  river, 
at  its  low  stage,  was  only  three  or  four  rods  across.  The  old 
negro  who  ferried  us  over,  told  us  he  had  taken  many  a  man 
to  the  other  side,  before  annexation,  who  had  ridden  his  horse 
hard  to  get  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the  States. 

If  we  were  unfortunate  in  this  stormy  entrance  into  Texas, 
we  were  very  fortunate  in  the  good  quarters  we  lighted  upon. 
The  ferry  has  long  been  known  as  Graines's  Ferry,  but  is  now 
the  property  of  Mr.  Strather,  an  adjacent  planter,  originally 
from  Mississippi,  but  a  settler  of  long  standing.  His  log- 
house  had  two  stories,  and  being  the  first  we  had  met  having 
glass  windows,  and  the  second,  I  think,  with  any  windows  at 
all,  takes  high  rank  for  comfort  on  the  road.  At  supper  we 
had  capital  mallard-ducks  from  the  river,  as  well  as  the  usual 
Texan  diet. 

We  were  detained  by  the  severity  of  the  weather  during 
the  following  day,  and  were  well  entertained  with  huntsman's 
stories  of  snakes,  game,  and  crack  shots.  Mr.  S.  himself  is 
the  best  shot  in  the  county.  A  rival,  who  had  once  a  match 
against  him  for  two  thousand  dollars,  called  the  day  before 
the  trial,  and  paid  five  hundred  dollars  to  withdraw.  He 
brought  out  his  rifle  for  us,  and  placed  a  bullet,  at  one 
hundred  and  twenty  yards,  plump  in  the  spot  agreed  upon. 
His  piece  is  an  old  Kentucky  rifle,  weighing  fourteen  pounds, 
barrel  fourty-four  inches  in  length,  and  throwing  a  ball 
•weighing  forty-four  to  the  pound. 

A  guest,  who  came  in,  helped  us  to  pass  the  day  by  ex- 
citin*  our  anticipations  of  the  West,  and  by  his  free  and 

2  B  2 


372  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

good  advice.  He  confirmed  stories  we  had  heard  of  the 
danger  to  slavery  in  the  West  by  the  fraternizing  of  the 
blacks  with  the  Mexicans  They  helped  them  in  all  their 
bad  habits,  married  them,  stole  a  living  from  them,  and  ran 
them  off  every  day  to  Mexico.  This  man  had  driven  stages 
or  herded  cattle  in  every  state  of  the  Union,  and  had  a  notion 
that  he  liked  the  people  and  the  state  of  Alabama  better  than 
any  other.  A  man  would  get  on  faster,  he  thoiight,  in  Iowa, 
than  anywhere  else.  He  had  been  stage-driver  in  Illinois 
during  the  cold  winter  of  1851-2,  and  had  driven  a  whole 
day  when  the  mercury  was  at  its  furthest  below  zero,  but  had 
never  suffered  so  much  from  cold  as  on  his  present  trip, 
during  a  norther  on  a  Western  prairie.  He  was  now  return- 
ing from  Alexandria,  where  he  had  taken  a  small  drove  of 
horses.  He  cautioned  us,  in  travelling,  always  to  see  our 
horses  fed  with  our  own  eyes,  and  to  "hang  around"  them 
till  they  had  made  sure  of  a  tolerable  allowance,  and  never  to 
leave  anything  portable  within  sight  of  a  negro.  A  stray 
blanket  was  a  sure  loss. 

Mr.  S.  has  two  plantations,  both  on  upland,  but  one  under 
the  care  of  an  overseer,  some  miles  from  the  river.  The  soil 
he  considers  excellent.  He  averaged,  last  year,  seven  and  a 
half  bales  to  the  hand ;  this  year,  four  and  a  half  bales.  The 
usual  crop  of  corn  here  is  thirty  bushels  (shelled)  to  the  acre. 

Hearing  him  curse  the  neighbouring  poor  people  for  steal- 
ing hogs,  we  inquired  if  thieves  were  as  troublesome  here  as 
in  the  older  countries.  "  If  there  ever  were  any  hog-thieves 
anywhere,"  said  he,  "  it's  here."  In  fact,  no  slave  country, 
new  .or  old,  is  free  from  this  exasperating  pest  of  poor  whites. 
In  his  neighbourhood  were  several  who  ostensibly  had  a  little 
patch  of  land  to  attend  to,  but  who  really,  he  said,  derived 
their  whole  lazy  subsistence  from  their  richer  neighbours'  hog 
droves. 


ROUTE  ACROSS  EASTERN  TEXAS.  373 

The  negro-quarters  here,  scattered  irregularly  about  the 
house,  were  of  the  worst  description,  though  as  good  as  local 
custom  requires.  They  are  but  a  rough  inclosure  of  logs,  ten 
feet  square,  without  windows,  covered  by  slabs  of  hewn  wood 
four  feet  long.  The  great  chinks  are  stopped  with  whatever 
has  come  to  hand — a  wad  of  cotton  here,  and  a  corn-shuck 
there.  The  suffering  from  cold  within  them  in  such  weather 
as  we  experienced,  must  be  great.  The  day  before,  we  had 
seen  a  young  black  girl,  of  twelve  or  fourteen  years,  sitting 
on  a  pile  of  logs  before  a  house  we  passed,  in  a  driving  sleet, 
having  for  her  only  garment  a  short  chemise.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  say  whether  such  shiftlessness  was  the  fault  of  the 
master  or  of  the  girl.  Probably  of  both,  and  a  part  of  the 
peculiar  Southern  and  South-western  system  of  "  get  along," 
till  it  comes  better  weather. 

The  storm  continuing  a  third  day,  we  rode  through  it 
twenty-five  miles  further  to  San  Augustine.  For  some 
distance  the  country  remains  as  in  Louisiana.  Then  the 
pines  gradually  disappear,  and  a  heavy  clay  soil,  stained  by 
an  oxide  of  iron  to  a  uniform  brick  red,  begins.  It  makes 
most  disagreeable  roads,  sticking  close,  and  giving  an  indelible 
stain  to  every  article  that  touches  it.  This  tract  is  known  as 
the  Bed  Lands  of  Eastern  Texas. 

On  a  plantation  not  far  from  the  river,  we  learned  they 
had  made  eight  bales  to  the  hand.  Mentioning  it,  after- 
wards, to  a  man  who  knew  the  place,  he  said  they  had 
planted  earlier  than  their  neighbours,  and  worked  night  and 
day,  and,  he  believed,  had  lied,  besides.  They  had  sent 
cotton  both  by  Galveston  and  by  Grand  Ecore,  and  had  found 
the  cost  the  same,  about  #8  per  bale  of  500  Ibs. 

We  called  at  a  plantation  offered  for  sale.  It  was  de- 
scribed in  the  hand-bills  as  having  a  fine  house.  We  found 


374  COTTON   AND    SLAVERY. 

it  a  cabin  without  windows.  The  proprietor  said  he  had 
made  ten  bales  to  the  hand,  and  would  sell  with  all  the  im- 
provements, a  new  gin-house,  press,  etc.,  for  $6  per  acre. 

The  roadside,  though  free  from  the  gloom  of  pines,  did 
not  cheer  up,  the  number  of  deserted  wrecks  of  plantations 
not  at  all  diminishing.  The  occupied  cabins  were  no  better 
than  before.  We  had  entered  our  promised  land ;  but  the 
oil  and  honey  of  gladness  and  peace  were  nowhere  visible. 
The  people  we  met  were  the  most  sturdily  inquisitive  I  ever 
saw.  Nothing  staggered  them,  and  we  found  our  account 
in  making  a  clean  breast  of  it  as  soon  as  they  approached. 

We  rode  through  the  shire-town,  Milam,  without  noticing 
it.  Its  buildings,  all  told,  are  six  in  number. 

We  passed  several  immigrant  trains  in  motion,  in  spite  of 
the  weather.  Their  aspect  was  truly  pitiful.  Splashed  with 
a  new  coating  of  red  mud,  dripping,  and  staggering,  beating 
still  the  bones  of  their  long  worn-out  cattle,  they  floundered 
helplessly  on. 

San  Augustine  made  no  very  charming  impression  as  we 
entered,  nor  did  we  find  any  striking  improvement  on  longer 
acquaintance.  It  is  a  town  of  perhaps  fifty  or  sixty  houses, 
and  half  a  dozen  shops.  Most  of  the  last  front  upon  a 
central  square  acre  of  neglected  mud.  The  dwellings  are 
clap-boarded,  and  of  a  much  higher  class  than  the  plantation 
dwellings.  As  to  the  people,  a  resident  told  us  there  was 
but  one  man  in  the  town  that  was  not  in  the  constant  habit 
of  getting  drunk,  and  that  this  gentleman  relaxed  his  Puri- 
tanic severity  during  our  stay  in  view  of  the  fact  that  Christ- 
mas came  but  once  that  year. 

Late  on  Christmas  eve,  we  were  invited  to  the  window  by 
our  landlady,  to  see  the  pleasant  local  custom  of  The  Christ- 
mas Serenade.  A  band  of  pleasant  spirits  started  from  the 


ROUTE  ACROSS  EASTERN  TEXAS.  375 

square,  blowing  tin  horns,  and  beating  tin  pans,  and  visited 
in  succession  every  house  in  the  village,  kicking  in  doors, 
and  pulling  down  fences,  until  every  male  member  of  the 
family  had  appeared,  with  appropriate  instruments,  and 
joined  the  merry  party.  They  then  marched  to  the  square, 
and  ended  the  ceremony  with  a  centupled  tin  row.  In  this 
touching  commemoration,  as  strangers,  we  were  not  urged  to 
participate. 

A  gentleman  of  the  neighbourhood,  addicted,  as  we  knew, 
to  a  partiality  towards  a  Rip  Van  Winkle,  tavern-lounging 
style  of  living,  told  us  he  was  himself  regarded  by  many  of 
his  neighbours  with  an  evil  eye,  on  account  of  his  "  stuck- 
up  "  deportment,  and  his  habit  of  minding  too  strictly  his 
own  business.  He  had  been  candidate  for  representative, 
and  had,  he  thought,  probably  been  defeated  on  this  ground, 
as  he  was  sure  his  politics  were  right. 

Not  far  from  the  village  stands  an  edifice,  which,  having 
three  stories  and  sashed  windows,  at  once  attracted  our 
attention.  On  inquiry,  we  learned  a  story,  curiously  il- 
lustrative of  Texan  and  human  life.  It  appeared  that  two 
universities  were  chartered  for  San  Augustine,  the  one  under 
the  protection  of  the  Methodists,  the  other  of  the  Presby- 
terians. The  country  being  feebly  settled,  the  supply  of 
students  was  short,  and  great  was  the  consequent  rivalry 
between  the  institutions.  The  neighbouring  people  took 
sides  upon  the  subject  so  earnestly,  that,  one  fine  day,  the 
president  of  the  Presbyterian  University  was  shot  down  in 
the  street.  After  this,  both  dwindled,  and  seeing  death  by 
starvation  staring  them  in  the  face,  they  made  an  arrange- 
ment by  which  both  were  taken  under  charge  of  the  fra- 
ternity of  Masons.  The  buildings  are  now  used  under  the 
style  of  "  The  Masonic  Institute,"  the  one  for  boys,  the  other 


376  COTTON    AND    SLAVERY. 

for  girls.  The  boys  occupy  only  the  third  story,  and  the 
two  lower  stories  are  falling  to  ludicrous  decay — the  boarding 
dropping  off,  and  the  windows  on  all  sides  dashed  in. 

The  Mexican  habitations  of  which  San  Augustine  was 
once  composed,  have  all  disappeared.  We  could  not  find 
even  a  trace  of  them. 


END  OP  VOL.  I. 


University  of  California 

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NOV  0 1  2006 


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